What Lily Wants!
by Prongs 4 Lily
Summary: James gets cursed by the Slytherins, but it backfires and now James can hear the thoughts of every girl at Hogwarts, How will this effect his love hate relationship with Lily Evans now he's found the perfect way to get into her good books? please R
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters that you recognise; it all belongs to J.K Rowling.

Summary: James gets cursed by the slytherins, but it backfires and now James can hear what Lily and every other girl around him thinks.

Chapter 1

James Potter, Head boy, was walking with his three friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew to their first lesson of the day; N.E.W.T.S Potions.

"This is the first thing I need in the morning, Professor Slughorn, shouting his big gob off!" Sirius said with a yawn.

"I know!" James agreed as they went down to the dungeons. They had to finish off their swelling solutions perfectly this lesson, and Sirius wasn't even half done on his.

"I told you to start paying attention in class!" Remus said.

"Well SORRY if I don't give a crap about stupid bloody Potions!" Sirius said irritably and then ran into someone.

"Watch where the hell you're going you…" Sirius said but stopped mid sentence when he looked up to see Lily Evans standing there with a guilty look on her face.

"Oh Sirius I'm so sorry" Lily said panting; obviously she had been running when she ran into Sirius.

"It's ok Lils, where are you running to?" Sirius asked.

"I left my Potions homework on the common room table this morning, I'm going to go and fetch it before Slughorn arrives, oh and Potter, we have a meeting after classes with Dumbledore" Lily said and ran back off.

"I don't know what I have to do to get her to like me, but it's something I'm not capable of, that I'm sure of." James said sighing.

"Yeah well all women are weird, no man on earth will ever understand the way a woman's mind works, never in a million years!" Sirius said.

"Thanks Padfoot, that's made me feel really better!" James said sarcastically and Remus shook his head.

"Look James if you want Lily to like you, just prove to her that you've changed, you're not that ignorant prat you once were, you've changed into a better person!" Remus said and James nodded his head.

"Thanks Remus, I'll try that" James said to Remus and smiled at him.

"Now come on before Slughorn gets there before us," Remus said and the boys picked up their walking speed until they were stopped again, this time by the slytherins.

"Oh look who it is, it's the mudblood lovers," A voice said from behind them and the three 7th years turned round to see Snape, Avery and Mulciber.

"What the hell do you three want?" Sirius said looking disgustingly at the three Slytherins.

"We want revenge, for that stupid pathetic prank you played on us," Snape said slowly, trying to look hard.

"Well if it was that Pathetic you wouldn't be standing here moaning right now, would you?" James said pointing out the obvious.

"Whatever, you know what you three did, and we're not gonna let it go, not now, not ever!" Avery said slowly walking towards the Gryffindors with Mulciber and Snape right behind her, he kept taking little glances behind his back to make sure that the other two lads were still walking behind.

"We aren't scared of you, come on and do the worse curse you can master, which I bet won't be a very big one!" James said and the Slytherins still kept walking towards them, pace by pace, but the Marauders never moved one inch.

"Don't provoke us Potter, or you'll regret it!" Snape said grinding his teeth together.

"I'm shaking on my broomstick, not bloody likely!" James said with a laugh and Snape got out his wand.

"I'm warning you Potter!" he said again dangerously.

"Go on then, but I'm warning you. I'm head boy and cursing me would be a very bad idea in deed…" James said but didn't get to finish his sentence as he was flung back by Avery cursing him with his wand, James fell on the floor and felt dizzy, he finally got up, shook his head, and made his way to Avery, who Sirius looked like he was about to hit, but James got there first and…

BANG!!!

Hit Avery hard in the face, which made him hold his nose in pain.

"I'll get you done for that Potter" he said angrily.

The Slytherins walked away, clutching onto Avery to support him up. James rubbed his hand and turned around to the rest of the Maurders.

"Prongs man, are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine'

"Come on James, before we're late" Remus said tugging at James' arm.

"Ok" James agreed and the three boys headed off down the rest of the dungeons to the classroom, and James, Sirius and Remus took their usual seats at their desks, soon enough Lily came running in and sighed in relief when she found out that Professor Slughorn hadn't arrived yet, She sat down next to Remus and got her Parchment and Quill out, Just as the Professor walked though the dungeon door.

"Ok Quiet now, you all know what you've got to do, so I won't waste my breath going through it, so get to work, and no talking!" The professor said and then sat down at his desk. James kept hearing girls talking though out the room; it was so loud that he couldn't concentrate and he put his head in his hands.

"Prongs what's the matter?" Sirius whispered adding root hairs to his potion.

"Can't you hear them all?" James asked and Sirius looked at James weirdly.

"No, hear who?" Sirius asked.

"Doesn't matter" James said and tried to continue to working on his potion, but the loud noises from all the girls made him shout out loud,

"WILL YOU ALL SHUT YOUR LOUD GOBS!"

A/N: Hiya what did you think of my first chappie, I hope you like it,

Please review


	2. I don't believe it!

"MISTER POTTER I WILL NOT TOLERATE YELLING IN MY CLASSROOM, DETENTION TONIGHT!" The Professor said standing up and yelling at James.

James didn't know what was going on; ever since he had been hit by the curse that Snape sent his way, he'd been feeling really weird, he kept on getting headaches and hearing girls talking even though they weren't. Then it hit him.

_'But that's impossible, how can I hear what girls are thinking, it's insane!'_ James thought to himself as more voices came exploding into his head and he put his head on the table again.

"James are you sure you don't need to go to the Hospital Wing?" Sirius asked patting his best friend on the back.

"No I'm just fine" James said lifting his head back up.

"Are you sure?" Sirius asked, James knew that Sirius was worried about him, and he was flatted by it, but with Sirius constantly asking if he was alright and the girls voice's still banging on in his head, he just couldn't take it anymore.

"I've just got a really bad headache, that's all" James said back to Sirius, who nodded and got back to his work.

About ten minutes later the bell rung and everybody packed all their stuff away and moved all their cauldrons to one side of the room and then left in piles to go to dinner, James, Sirius and Remus were walking behind everyone and James whispered to the both of them,

"Guys I think something is really wrong with me," He said and the two boys looked at him strangely.

"How'd you figure that?" Remus asked.

"Well in Potions I kept on hearing all these voice's in my head, they were all girls voices and they were saying all this personal and private stuff that no guy could ever know…guys I think I can read girls minds" James said and Sirius burst out laughing.

"James don't jump to conclusions, it could be anything" Sirius said claming down a bit.

"No I really think that's what it is," James argued walking into the great hall and sitting down at the Gryffindor table with Remus and Sirius by his side.

"Ok then…how…when did you realise it then?" Remus said mainly stuck for anything to say.

"In Potions, I kept hearing all the voices and that's when I told everyone to shut their loud gobs…" James started.

"You mean when it was really quiet?" Remus asked finding all this hard to believe.

"Yeah, I think it happened when Snape hit me with that curse, it probably didn't work properly and backfired or something and now I can read girl's minds" James said putting some mashed potato's on his plate.

"How do you know it happened there though?" Sirius asked sipping his pumpkin juice.

"Cause straight after the curse hit me, I could hear girls voices, and I know they were thinking because their lips didn't move!" James said stuffing some carrots in his mouth.

"Really…what did they say…I mean think?" Sirius said rolling his eyes, James saw this and thought to himself.

**'_Man he still doesn't believe me…I know it's a little hard to believe but it's not impossible for it to happen though…is it?_'**

"It's just to hard for me to believe!" Sirius said and looked over to the far end of the table and stared at Louise, who was sitting with Lily, for about three seconds and then turned back to James, James saw Sirius' longing look at Louise and then said,

"If you go over to Louise and start to chat her up, with me there as well, I'll tell you what she really thinks of you" James said and Sirius nodded his head.

"Fine then" Sirius said and outstretched his hands to seal the deal, but before James shook it, James added,

"But if I do, then you have to believe me that I can hear what girls think, deal?" James said outstretching his hand.

"Deal!" Sirius said and the pair shook on it and made their way over to Louise and her friends.


	3. Sirius' crazy love life!

James and Sirius went over to where Louise, Lily, Michelle, Amy and Alice were sitting and the two boys sat down by Amy, who was sitting next to Louise. 

"Hello Ladies" Sirius said flirtatiously and then James heard a very clear thought enter his mind, the thought of a girl, 

'Augh WHY does he have to come over here acting so smart and flirty, it makes me want him so bad!' 

James recognised the voice as Louise's and he started to smile. 

"Hi Sirius" Lily, who was sitting opposite him, said as she was eating her meal. 

"Hi Louise I've got a question to ask you" Sirius said leaning forwards so he could get a clear view of the brunette. 

_'Oh no, what's he gonna ask, nothing embarrassing, please nothing embarrassing!' _

James heard Louise think and his smile grew bigger until he looked like a Cheshire cat. 

"What black?" Louise asked hatefully, hearing this cased James to think,  

**_'I've got to admit she is a good actress' _**He thought and then Sirius looked at James, who nodded, and Sirius turned his head back round to face Louise. 

"I was wondering if you would like to accompany me, on this lovely evening, to the wonderful village of Hogsmeade" Sirius said sweetly, which caused Amy to sigh blissfully to how romantic Sirius was being. But it wasn't as blissful to other people as James had to hold his breath to stop him laughing out loud; he'd never saw his best friend like this, and honestly, didn't want to see it ever again. Sirius glared at James, which encouraged James to get his breath back and act normal. 

"So Louise what do you say?" Sirius asked turning his head back to Louise. Then James heard Louise think, 

_'Come on Louise, say yes, you know you want to!' _

"Louise?" Sirius asked again, Mainly questioning her silence. 

_'Say yes' _Louise thought again. 

"Louise I haven't got all day love!" Sirius said. 

"Yeah Louise come on!" Michelle said. 

_'YES YES YES YES!!!!!' _Louise thought but her mouth finally said. 

"No!" And she got back to her dinner. 

"Oh well you can't blame a guy for trying!" Sirius said and got up. 

"Huh, you're just gonna give up, just like that?" Alice asked. 

"Yep, I can't exactly change her mind, it took her long enough to answer a simple question, I am not gonna bother her anymore. Well today anyway. Come on James let's go" Sirius said and James rose up from his chair. 

"Well it's been a pleasure," James said to the girls as he got up. 

"Yeah, getting turned down and everything, see you later girls" Sirius said and the pair walked back up to Remus, who was reading a book about the troll war for History of Magic. 

"So how'd it go?" Remus asked shutting the book with one big bang. 

"Yeah that's what I'd like to know, what did she think of me then?" Sirius asked and James clapped his hands together and laughed evilly. 

"Ha that's for me to know and you never to find out!" James teased. 

"Come on James, you said that you could read girls thoughts, well she's a girl, so tell me what she thought about me" Sirius begged. 

"It'll cost ya!" James teased again and Sirius stared at James gob smacked, with his mouth wide open. 

"But we had a deal, you can't go back on it, we shook hands and everything, James come on and tell me!" Sirius begged again and James gave in. 

"Alright, but only because you are my very best friend in the whole entire world…whoa!" James said shockingly at the end. 

"What…what's wrong?" Sirius said desperately wanting to know what Louise had thought of him, and James weren't helping. 

"Nothing I've just realised how desperate I am!" James said with a laugh and Sirius smiled. 

"You're really saying that to the wrong person, just you remember, I live with you, I know everything you do. Where you go. How you do everything. What you even sleep with…" Sirius teased and James cut him off. 

"Yeah but we don't have to go down that road, do we Sirius old buddy old pal?" James said patting Sirius on the back.

"Nope but only if you tell me what Louise thought of me" Sirius said slyly. 

"Ok, She thought completely differently to what she was saying" James said to his best friend. 

"Like what?" Sirius asked excitedly. 

"Well she said that she really wants you and she really wanted to say yes to you instead of no, I guess her mouth just got the better of her." James explained. 

"Is that exactly what she thought?" Sirius said slowly. 

"Yes, look Padfoot I'd never lie to you about something like this, so do you believe me then?" James asked hoping that he'd finally gotten though to his best friend. 

"After that, sure I do" Sirius said hugging James, then a thought just went into James mind.

"Guys I've just realised something!" James said suddenly. 

"Oh wonderful, somebody inform the newspapers, James Potter finally realises something, and it would sell a million copies that would!" Sirius said with a laugh. 

"Ok Mister Sarcastic, you done now?" James asked and Sirius nodded with a great big smile on his face. 

"Thank you, as I was saying, I've just realised that I could use this mind reading thing to my advantage!" James said. 

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked clueless. 

"Well if I can get into Lily's mind, figure out her likes and dislikes I could have a greater chance of getting her to like me!" James said and Remus shook his head. 

"I'm not getting involved, it's only gonna end up in tears!" Remus said and opened his book back up. 

A/N: Hiya, what did you think of this chapter, I'm really sorry it's so short but I've got a little bit of writers block at the minute, please review and tell me what you think of this chapter, thanks 

Lotsa luv 

Prongs 4 Lily 

xxxxxxxxxx  

  


	4. The thoughts of one Lily Evans

The next day the group's first lesson was Potions; the Marauders were all sitting down eating breakfast at the Gryffindor table.

"So you can actually read girls minds?" Peter said amazed.

"Yeah and just let everyone one else know I can why don't you Pete?" James said angrily at the loudness of what Peter spoke.

"Oops sorry James" Peter whispered.

"Ok…good!" James said and picked up some toast and buttered it.

"Come on lads we'll be late if we don't leave now!" Remus said looking at his watch.

"Ok I'm coming" Peter said picking up loads of food as he got up.

"Wormtail how in this lifetime are you going to eat all that food?" Remus said shocked at the amount of food his friend had picked up.

"Pretty easily Moony" Peter said and James laughed and looked across the table for Sirius, who was chatting up a 5th year Gryffindor.

"Oi lover boy come on or we'll be late for class!" James said and Sirius looked up and nodded at his friends.

"Sorry girl I'm gonna have to love you and leave you!" Sirius said getting up.

"Oh well, I'll catch up with you later yeah?" The girl said and Sirius nodded.

"You can bet on it!" Sirius answered and went to walk towards James, Remus and Peter, when he saw Louise finishing off the breakfast.

"Hiya Figg, looking gorgeous today girl!" Sirius said as he walked past her and Louise turned round and glared.

"Bugger off Black you dirty pervert!" Louise said and turned back round to her friends.

"You know you love me!" Sirius whispered in her ear and then quickly ran towards his friends just incase Louise used one of her famous slaps on him.

"Sirius one of these days that flirtatious mouth is gonna get you in deep trouble!" Remus said laughing.

"Yeah well I haven't had any complaints so far so I'm not really that bothered," Sirius said and James laughed under his breath.

"And what about Louise?" James asked and Sirius grinned.

"Oh she loves me really, it's completely obvious!" Sirius said.

"Yeah when you have a friend who can read her mind!" Peter said trying to be smart, but again said it to loudly for James' liking.

"Wormtail do I have to zip your mouth up?" James asked threateningly.

"Nope!" Peter said scared.

"Good now come on lets get to lesson before we're late!" James said getting his bag onto his shoulder.

"Since when do you care about getting to lessons early?" Sirius said.

"Since I got this" James said pointing to his Head badge…

"And I want to sit next to Lily before anyone else does…I mean what's the point of having these powers if you can't use them!" James said with a smirk.

"Ok whatever lets get going" Remus said as the group walked down into the dungeons.

When they got into the classroom James quickly sat down on Lily's desk in the middle of the classroom in front of Remus and Sirius' desk.

"And what's your excuse going to be when she asks you what you're sitting there for?" Remus asked.

"Ill figure something out believe me!" James said turning round to his friends.

"Well here's your chance!" Sirius said looking at the dungeon door and watching Lily, Louise and Michelle walk in and Lily's face slowly turn red with anger seeing James sitting at her table.

"What the heck are you doing sitting there Potter…that's my desk!" Lily said and James quickly searched his mind for a half decent excuse.

"Well do you remember the first meeting we had with Dumbledore at the begging of the year, he said that the head students had to work together in the subjects they were taking together, because it would be easier and earn a more acceptable grade" James said and Lily nodded her head, but still not completely satisfied, but she would do anything for a decent grad, especially in Potions.

"Ok but I'm still not happy about this Potter!" Lily said as she sat down and got her Quill and Parchment out.

'**_I cant believe this! Having to sit next to Potter in Potions, what can make this day worse!_**

Just then the Professor Slughorn stormed in though the class and settled himself at the front of the classroom.

"Morning class, Today we will be starting off a new project to successfully make a truth potion, this potion will be marked as 20 of your grade so you will have to make sure that all the work is done to your best ability, you will work in pairs and the people you will be working with are the people who you are sitting next to now, if you follow the instructions on the bored they will lead you to your first part of the potion, get on with it!" Slughorn explained waving his wand at the board to make all the instructions show up.

Lily got up and went to fetch a cauldron and James got up to fetch the ingredients. After about twenty minutes of trying to figure out how to make the potion, stress was starting to show on Lily' face.

**_'Grrrr I can't get this… spoon of root hair… spoon of unicorn mane hair…but which one goes in first…and it doesn't even tell you how many spoons to put in there…why does all the bad stuff always happen to me!" _**James heard Lily think, this was he thought the time to step in.

"Evans watch…you pick up one spoon of the root hair and place it in, and then one spoon of Unicorn mane hair and put it in the cauldron, and then if that's wrong we can always do it again because remember this is only the beginning of the potion" James said demonstrating to Lily.

**_'What is he on about…its like he's talking a different_** **_language, the smartarse!'_**

James heard Lily think and he sighed to himself.

"Evans honestly its not that hard, just try and do what I just told you and you'll be fine!" James said and Lily did exactly what James told her to do and the potion went a bright green colour, which was to Lily's happiness, the right colour it had to go.

**_'Wow it actually worked, he didn't tell me anything that would totally embarrass me in front of the whole class, but why did he do it? I thought he hated me? probably got a bet going with someone'_** Lily thought and James again sighed when the bell went.

"See you soon Evans!" James said picking up his bag and walking out of the classroom with the rest of the Marauders.

"So how did the lesson go?" Sirius asked.

"Well lets just say its gonna take a while but I'm defiantly getting somewhere" James said walking to transfiguration with a smile on his face.

A/N: Hiya sorry it took me so long to write another chapter, just a very long problem with writers block and I've been really busy at school, but now I'm on my holidays you can expect a lot more chapters, please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter

Luv

Prongs 4 Lily xxx


	5. charms Tutor

Lily was sitting in the Gryffindor common room reading a book on Charms when the marauders walked in.

"Just my luck guys, there's Evans" James said tilting his head to Lily.

"I wish you would stop reading her mind and winding her up seriously" Remus said.

"Look Moony, I just want to understand her a little better, that way I can understand why she hates me so much and I want to get to know her" James said and Remus sighed.

"I know you do, but you're going about it the wrong way, when she finds out what you've done she is never going to want to speak to you ever again." Remus said with a frown.

"Well that's a risk I've just got to take isn't it?" James said walking over to Lily.

"Dead man walking, James we'll meet you in the Great Hall" Remus said shaking his head at his messy haired friend, as they all left.

"Hello Evans" James said and Lily lifted her head up from her book

**_"Oh what does he want now…I'm really not in the mood for him…all I wanted was a little bit of peace" _**James heard Lily think.

"I know you may want your peace…" James started saying

**_"More then you could ever imagine potter" _**

"But I was just wondering if you could help me…you know tutor me…In charms…see I'm not doing to well…and I need to pass" James said and he heard Lily sigh.

**_"Should I or not…I mean he might just be doing this to get into my pants…or on the other hand he is generally stuck and needs my help…oh why not…might as well I've got nothing else better to do"_**

"Ok then Potter but on one condition" Lily said and James nodded.

"No asking me out under any circumstances" Lily said and James nodded.

"No problem!" James said and walked off with a giant smile on his face.

"Meet me in Professor Flitwicks room at eight 'o' clock tonight" Lily yelled over and James turned round and nodded. He made his way down to the Great Hall where his friends were wating.

"Well how did it go?" Sirius asked when James got to them all.

"It went ok…she's tutoring me for Charms" James said with a smirk.

"But James…you don't need help in Charms" Remus said and James looked at him.

"Yes…but she doesn't know that though does she?" James said and Remus rolled his eyes.

"She will do when you do every spell properly and she realises that you don't need her help" Remus said. "Seriously James you really don't think things though sometimes" He continued.

"I'll just act stupid…" James said smiling and walking out of the common room

"Well that defiantly won't be hard" Remus said under his breath following the rest of the Marauders.

Lily was waiting in Flitwicks room for ten minutes before James actually arrived.

"Your late" Lily said staring at James.

"Sorry, Just lost track of the time" James said sitting down near Lily.

**_"Such bloody ignorance…didn't even have the decency to turn up on time…he was probably cursing some poor little first year because they looked at him funny"_** James heard Lily think and he was rather insulted…was he really that bad? Or was Lily just over reacting because he was late.

"Right we can start with the 'Remoris' spell" Lily said getting out her wand and James did the same.

Lily got two cups from out of the cupboard and put then in front of her and James.

"Right…now point at the cup and say the incantation and it should turn into different colours" Lily said and pointed at her own cup which started turning all different colours.

"Right…umm…Remorisisses" James said and the cup flew right off the table where it was sitting.

"Potter, you said it wrong!" Lily said picking the cup back up.

"Try again"

James tried at least ten times before Lily started losing her patience.

**_'Garr why is he doing this…the worst thing is I think he knows how to do it…he's just being arsy and failing on purpose I mean the incantation is easy enough to say and his wand movement is correct…ok Lily calm down…" _**

James decided that this was the time to start being nice and doing it properly.

When James had finally done it properly the cup was turning into different colours and he looked rather proud of himself.

**_'Finally…he got it…' _**James heard Lily think.

"Thanks Evans…I couldn't have done it without you" He said looking into her eyes.

**_"Oh goodness did James Potter jus say thank you' _**

"Your welcome" Lily said smiling and picking up the two cups and putting them back in the cupboard.

"Evans can we talk" James said sitting back down.

**_'Oh no he's going back now…he's going to ask me out and wind me up again' _**

"Yeah ok" Lily said sitting down next to him.

"Listen…I really need help in Charms, and I don't want to go though this tutoring with you and me constantly taking nasty digs at one another…so I was wondering…not forever just for now if you like…just having a sort of truce…" James said looking at Lily who looked at him in awe.

**_'oh my goodness….he's actually being nice!' _**

"Yes ok…" Lily said smiling.

"Ok good…see you later…Lily" James said picking up this wand and leaving the classroom.

Still inside the classroom Lily was sitting in the room in silence…not knowing that one particular lad was reading all of her thoughts….

A/N: hello...sorry i haven't updated in a while but all my exams are over now and i have nothing to do now for about 8 weeks so i'm dedicated to fanfiction lol...please review!

thanks love Prongs 4 Lily xxxx


	6. A Different Opinion

The next morning James was sitting in the Great Hall having breakfast when he was joined by the rest of the Marauders, who sat down with him.

'Well good Morning Prongs, why didn't you wait up for us?' Sirius asked and James shrugged his shoulders.

'Dunno' he muttered while taking a bite out of his toast.

'I'll tell you why, because he doesn't want to tell us what happened with Lily last night' Remus said and James winked at him.

'Ohhhhh come on then James, so called God of all women, what happened?' Sirius asked and James smiled.

'You'll have to wait and see' James said ad looked towards the entrance of the Great Hall when he noticed Lily and her friends walking towards the Gryffindor table.

'Hey Lily' James said confidently as they passed.

'Hi James, boys' She replied nodding her head at the group and carried on to sit at the other end of the table, she moved away to quickly for James to track her thoughts.

'Wait did hell just freeze over?' Sirius asked and James was grinning widely.

'Oh my Lord you've put a spell on her haven't you? James this isn't fair can't you just leave the poor girl alone!' Remus said and James shook his head.

'No! I haven't put a spell on her, we just decided to call a truce while the Charms lessons we're going on' James answered and Remus rolled his eyes.

'You mean the Charms lessons you don't need' He replied.

'Indeed, as you can tell the first lesson as an absolute success' James scoffed and looked over towards Lily who was staring at him, he smiled and she looked back down to the newspaper that was in front of her.

'Poor girl' Remus sighed.

'Come on, before we're late for class' James said getting up after eating his last piece of toast.

'Since when do you care about being late?' Sirius asked shocked.

'Since I became a mind reader and realised that's what the girl of my dreams finds immature' He replied and Sirius pretended to gag.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

'So Lily, you and Potter? When did this all happen then?' Asked Michelle who noticed Lily starring at him as he got up and walked out of the Great Hall.

'We decided to call a truce, you know while I'm tutoring him' she explained and Alice smiled.

'So if it's only a truce, why have you been starring at him for the last five minutes?' Alice said and Lily looked down.

'No I haven't' she argued and her friends scoffed and laughed.

'Oh Lily don't lie to yourself, you think he's hot' Amy said and Lily looked up horrified.

'I certainly do not, its just last night although I hate to admit it, it was fun, I've never seen him in that light before, and he was really nice and polite' Lily said and Michelle and Louise giggled.

'Lily's got a crush, Lily's got a crush' Louise mocked and Lily's cheeks turned a bright red colour.

'Oh Lily I think you may have used a bit too much blusher this morning love, your cheeks are flowing are awfully bright colour of red' Michelle giggled.

'Aww stop winding her up, it's not her fault she's in loooove with her worst enemy' Amy giggled and Lily lifted her head up.

'Will you all stop being so immature, I've never heard such rubbish, James Potter has always been and will always be an ignorant self centred know it all, and yes maybe I do find him the tiniest bit attractive but it means nothing' Lily argued and the girls laughed.

'Yeah, we're sorry Lily' Alice said smiling.

'Yeah we didn't mean to embarrass you' Louise said and Michelle nodded.

'Good, now let get to lesson.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Their first lesson was transfiguration, when Lily walked into the classroom she noticed James first sitting third row from the front of the class, and the two tables in front of him and Sirius, who he was sitting next to, were empty.

'Hey lets all sit over there' Lily pointed the two tables out at the front of the class, and Michelle noticed who was sitting behind the table.

'Yeah sure Lily' Louise smiled and they all sat down and waited for professor McGonagall to appear, when she finally id she set the class up straight away to learn some theory, which unfortunately for Sirius involved books, fortunately but James it involved silence so he could listen to Lily's thoughts without looking to obvious. He leaned abit closer forward and suddenly heard a voice … Lily's.

'**_Those girls don't know what their talking about, I mean what a load of rubbish, I can't like him, not like that anyway, a truce is a truce, doesn't mean you have to become attracted to them, what on earths the matter with me? Why can't I stop thinking about the ignorant pig, he drives me crazy' _**

James smiled widely and listened some more.

'**_I don't even know why I can't stop thinking about him, I mean all he was, was nice to me, and then I suddenly fall for him? How desperate do I want to be?'_**

James formed a plan in his head. Fair enough he thought it wasn't a fantastic plan, but it worked for him.

At the end of the lesson he walked up to Lily who was busy packing her things away and tapped her on the shoulder.

'Oh hi James' she said swiftly looking up, then looking back down so he couldn't see the blush rising on her cheeks.

'_**Oh my god I'm blushing, what is wrong with me?' **_

'Yeah how does tonight sound for another tutoring?' James asked and Lily struggled to get her things in her bag through rushing and ended up dropping half her books on the floor. James automatically went down to pick them up, as did she, when she felt their hands touch as they reached for the same book.

'**_How old are you Lily? You're blushing because you touched a guy's hand? What are you ten?_**

James was enjoying the fact he could hear arguing to herself, about him, life was good.

'So how about tonight?' James asked again when they got back up to normal height level.

'Err yeah sounds good, I'll meet you in the common room at eight' Lily said and quickly hurried out of the classroom, leaving a very happy James behind.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

It's not a date, it's a tutoring session, grow up will you' Lily said to Louise as she was getting ready to meet James.

'Yeah ok then, I want you back for nine thirty and all the gossip when you get in' Louise replied and winked at Lily, who laughed and shouted 'grow up' as she left the dormitory and walked into the common room to find James already waiting for her.

They said their hellos and walked back down to the Charms classroom, Lily trying hard not to picture James topless and James not trying to make it obvious he could hear this thought. After an hour James had mastered the 'empetigo' Spell and Lily was tiding the classroom.

'Lily can I ask you a question?' James asked and Lily turned around to face him.

'Sure… what's the matter?' She asked.

'_**Oh please don't say you don't want to be tutored anymore, it at least gives me something to do, not that its because its with him because that's not the reason' **_

James could hear Lily arguing with herself again and started smiling.

'What's so funny?' She asked and James stopped smiling.

'Oh nothing, I just like how close we've become that's all, I hope you can see the real me now, and not some phoney behind stupid pranks' James said and he could almost feel Lily's heart sinking.

'Oh erm, yeah your ok James' Lily agreed and turned back round, to avoid an awkward situation.

'The thing is Lily, I'm really attracted to you, not because I want to get into your pants, that's not me, because I love the way your hair blows in the wind, and how your eyes light up when you get a question right in a lesson and how for these last two days all I've seen on your face is a smile, you look so beautiful when you smile' James explained and Lily didn't turn around, but stood still.

'_**Oh why's he saying this, it's going to be much harder to hate him now!'**_

'I just wanted you to know…' James said as he grabbed her arm and pulled her round.

'What I feel for you isn't a joke, its sincere, and I did actually need help on Charms, I'm just even more happy to be spending time with you where we're not biting each other's heads off' James said and Lily looked as though she was about to cry. This is it, thought James, it's now or never. He leaned in and hovered around her lips with his, as if waiting for a green flag to come up, he leaned in closer and Lily's heart started pounding really hard in her chest as their lips touched, it was just how she'd imagined it.


	7. Realisations and Reputations

**Disclaimer: I do no own anything you recognise from the story**

Later that night Lily went back to the girls dormitories dreading telling her friends about what had happened with her and James. She knew they'd go mad at hearing the news and jump to all sorts of conclusions. She walked into the dormitories and her thoughts were exactly right, she found them all sitting on her bed wide awake waiting for her to return from the tutoring session to hear the new gossip. She walked over to her bed and placed her charms books in the empty bag on her pillow and then sat down.

'So… what happened?' Louise asked tapping Lily lightly on her leg, she smiled and looked down.

'Nothing much' She replied and Alice laughed.

'Yeah ok then, not really believing you there Lils, come on, truth young lady its awful to lie' Alice said and Lily laughed.

'I'm not lying, honestly, nothing much happened' She replied and the girls groaned.

'Come on Lily, we didn't wait up hours for you to say nothing, come on, give us something' Amy begged and Lily picked up her pillow and put it on her lap, she was worried to look at them after she'd tell them what had happened.

'Well … me and James… we kind of … kissed abit' Lily struggled to say and suddenly put her hands to her ears to block out the screams coming from the group of girls on her bed.

'Oh my gosh Lily that's great, imagine if you got married and had babies' Louise said exited, and Lily sighed taking her hands from her ears, she knew this would happen, they would all jump to conclusions and start planning her future.

'Please don't jump to conclusions, I was only one kiss, and I don't know where it's going or what's going to happen, so don't get your hopes up, because I'm sure not going to' Lily said remembering the old James, the Hogwarts player who got with girls just to mess them around. Thinking about the way he used to be made her angry with herself that she liked him.

'Oh Lily this is a big deal though, you've fallen for your worst enemy' Amy said and Lily groaned.

'Oh don't put it like that'

'Sorry … but it's true, this could be a major breakthrough, and you can't deny that you don't like him now' Amy said and Lily shrugged.

'Ok maybe I like him a tiny little bit, but I'm not going to think much of the kiss, I've changed my view on him far to quickly, I still don't trust him' Lily said and looked at the girls, who were still smiling.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The next morning James went down to the common room to find his friends sitting near the fire waiting for him to come down, he sat down on the sofa and Sirius was the first to speak.

'So how did it go last night then mate?'

'Or am I going to be completely disappointed in you when you tell you' Remus added in.

'Went alright, lets just say I'm defiantly in' James smirked and Remus put his head in his hands.

'What happened then?' Sirius asked excited and James sat up straight.

'Just kissed, was pretty cool' James answered with a smile and Remus groaned.

'So I take it you still haven't told her that you can read her mind?' Remus asked and James shook her head.

'There's no need Moony, everything's working out fine' James replied.

'No, for you it's all going fine at the minute, but what about Lily? How will she react when she finds out that you've been lying to her? Tricking her into liking you?' Remus argued and James shrugged his shoulders.

'I'll just have to make sure she never finds out' James answered simply and Remus scoffed at him.

'Yeah great plan Prongs, but Lily's a smart girl, she's going to figure out at some point that all isn't as it seems, that you truly are to good to be true, and even if she doesn't figure it out for arguments sake, how will you feel if you leave here and get married to her and then in a couple of years time look back and think weather she loves you for you, or someone you're pretending to be. Because James I know you, and I know that you have a conscience, and one day it'll start getting to you the fact that you tricked the supposed to be love of your life into loving you back' Remus explained and James looked disgruntled.

'Why do you have to ruin things Moony with your good nature, why do you have to make everything I do look like a terrible thing?'

'Because James what you're doing at the minute may not seem terrible to you, but to her it would crush her if she found out' Remus argued back.

'Well I'm happy at the minute, I've finally got everything I wanted' James replied raising his voice and Remus stood up.

'Yeah, well done' with these words Remus walked out of the portrait hole and didn't look back. Sirius was stood up looking shocked at what he had seen and Peter kept on looking between James and portrait hole where Remus had just left.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

In Defence against the Dark Arts Remus walked in and noticed Lily and her friends sitting on a desk close to the front of the room, he walked over greeted her.

'Hey Lils, would you mind if I sat with you today in class, had abit of an argument with James you see' Remus said quietly and Lily moved her bag from the spare seat next to her.

'Of course Remus, what's happened then?' She asked concerned but Remus just shook his head.

'Nothing for you to worry bout' Remus said simply and placed all of his books on the table in front of him. James, Sirius and Peter walked in and James turned his head to see that Remus was sitting with Lily. His mind almost sprung to the worst and he had to find out if Remus, his supposed to be friend, had blown his secret. He had to do it though in a way that wouldn't provoke suspicion. He walked up behind Lily and tapped his light on the back and whispered in her ear.

'Good morning flower, how are we this morning?'

_**Oh gosh, what is he doing? What should I say? If I be polite and nice people may think something's going on, but if I'm horrible he may think I'm angry over last night and think I hated the kiss' **_James heard and smirked behind Lily's head.

'Yeah fine thanks' Lily said simply and James knew that Remus hadn't blown his secret, yet anyway.

After the lesson Lily and her friends left before Remus did, James waited till after Lily's view had gone and then stormed up to where Remus was sitting.

'Moony what do you think you're playing at?' He shouted and Remus lifted his head.

'I was sitting next to a friend, considering one of my other mates is nuts, but don't worry I haven't blown your little secret, I don't want to hurt Lily' James sat down where Lily had just got up ad sighed.

'Remus I don't want to hurt her either, but you don't know what its like, I love that girl so much, and to finally have her in my grasp and notice me and then get told ten minutes later that I have to let her go, its difficult' James said and Remus nodded, because of his situation he'd never let anyone get close to him, he was surprised he let his friends and Lily get so close.

'Yeah I know, but just because you tell her the truth doesn't mean you're going to lose her, why don't you stop reading her mind and be yourself, just be James and not some person who lives in the imagination of Lily, because you're a great guy James, you don't need Lily's thoughts to make you a great guy, you were just so caught up in trying to land her you got carried away and were impatient, I'm sure if you'd have done it the slow way she'd have fallen for you anyway' Remus explained and James nodded.

'I'm sorry mate' James said and pulled Remus into a hug.

'Hey that's alright, I'm sorry to, but in all honesty Prongs you're apologising to the wrong person' Remus said and James nodded.

'Yeah you're right I've got to tell her, even if she hates me' James said sadly and the four friends left the classroom.


	8. Animal Delights?

**Discliamer – I don't own anything you recognise**

James, when he had a break in between lessons went outside to the lake to figure out how to tell Lily about how he had tricked her into liking him… every way he put it, he could see himself without Lily as a friend or girlfriend. Why did he always make things so complicated? Was Remus right in saying that if he'd have just been patient Lily would have liked him anyway?

James went to sit down beside the lake and looked around, he saw a small figure of a girl sitting against a tree by the Forbidden Forest, and he went abit closer and noticed it was Lily, reading a book peacefully. She looked positively beautiful, her red hair was tied up in a bun and small locks were falling down her face, the sun was shining just behind her and shining on her skin. James sighed, he realised that he would have to tell her the truth, and the more he told himself that the more his insides ached.

He started walking towards her and then stopped; he couldn't do it, the prospect of Lily not being in his life scared him more than anything. He looked back at her with sad eyes, if only he knew what she was thinking without going against the rules, he wasn't close enough to her to hear her actual thoughts. He lifted up his head slowly, there was a way that he could see what she was thinking, without the help of physic powers. He ran away from Lily and into another part of the Forbidden Forest.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Lily was sat reading her Charms book, she knew all of the material in the book but was still panicking over her N.E.W.T's, they were more difficult then she ever anticipated. Her eyes fuzzed over the incantations and the words all of a sudden blurred, she placed down the book and placed her head backwards against the tree her back was leaning against, her mind shifted to James. She never thought she'd start liking him in the way she did, it scared her, she liked him and she knew she did, but didn't trust him 100 percent, at least not yet anyway. She could see a direct change in his ways, but what if it was all an act? She couldn't be sure, and it drove her mad.

She heard something rustle behind her and looked round quickly, all she could see was the thickness of the trees behind a small clearing edging into the forest, she turned her head back round thinking in was a bird, but still got her wand out, just in case. She heard the rustling sound again, but this time closer, she twisted her head back round again, holding onto her wand tightly. But this time instead of seeing nothing in clearing she saw a beautiful white stag. She gasped as the stag looked right at her and she lifted herself off the floor and walked slowly towards the animal, not wanting to scare him away.

'Hello … well aren't you the most gorgeous animal' Lily said softly edging closer, the stag moved towards her and stopped by the side of her, she gently moved her hand over the stags back.

'You're friendly as well' Lily said and smiled as the stag moved its head towards her hand. After a few strokes the stag moved down and positioned himself on the forest ground, Lily followed and sat next to it, leaving abit of room between them because she was still afraid of scaring it off. She continued to slowly stroke its back as he nuzzled Lily's knee.

'Aww, I bet you've got no worries in the world have you? Just at peace all of the time, wish my life was like that sometimes' Lily sighed and the stag looked up to her, as if it could understand everything she was saying, she shook her head and looked at the stag, there is no way possible that the animal could understand what she was talking about.

'Feelings' Lily continued as the stag moved his head back down to her knee.

'Feelings get in the way of everything, hate, friendship, even love sometimes … I'm not saying I love James, far from, I don't know everything just seemed easier when I hated him, or at least I thought it seemed easier, now when I think about it all I do is feel uncomfortable, like I did something horribly wrong to him' Lily said and groaned loudly, making the stag jump slightly.

'Oh gosh, I'm sorry … I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you' Lily apologised but the stag just settled back down again.

'I don't even know why I'm telling you all this, maybe I think I just need someone to talk to who won't talk back, or who doesn't understand what I'm saying, it's a little more sane then talking to myself about all of it' Lily said with a smile.

'I just wish I knew if James was being sincere, he's always liked me, that much I know. But he's also always wanted to embarrass me as well, I just wish I could trust him but after everything we've been through, I can't … I can't trust him at all' Lily sniffed and the stag lifted up his head, he moved his body away from Lily's hand and stood up, as did Lily, he nuzzled Lily's stomach and then ran off. Lily still stood in the same place bewildered.

'I'm sorry if I scared you' Lily shouted into the trees where the stag had just disappeared.

'What am I doing? I'm talking to thin air' Lily whispered to herself and shook her head and turned around.

'Lily…' She heard a voice behind her; she turned her head and saw James standing where the stag had just disappeared.

'James I … wait … have you been spying on me?' Lily asked suddenly getting angry, James ran up to her and tried to grab her arm but she pushed him away, she pointed her wand at him, but instead of cursing it she threw it straight at his head, it landed in the middle of his forehead and he fell backwards, the girl may look dainty, but she sure throws well.

'You're sick, sick you hear me, how could you do such a horrible thing? Hiding behind trees while I'm pouring out my heart and soul' she argued angrily and James got up off the floor and ran to stand in front of her so she couldn't run off.

'No Lily you don't understand, I was the stag' James said without thinking, but instantly regretted it.

'You're delusional Potter, did you like what you heard? Happy that you know I finally like you' Lily shouted and James tried really hard to read her mind, he focussed all of his energy to hear something, but he couldn't, he couldn't hear anything, just at the time when he really needed it …

'Lily, please listen to me, I'm the stag, I wanted … I wanted … I couldn't … it's hard to explain' James said weakly and Lily pushed passed him.

'Oh you don't say, so not only were you delving into my personal feelings you were lying to me as well, how on earth did you think you could get away with it… and how long have you been able to do … well to do that?' Lily asked furiously and James shrugged his shoulders.

'I don't think that's important at the minute Lily'

'The name is Evans, Potter, and no you're right, the important thing at the minute is that I get away from you as soon as possible' She shouted and then ran away from the forest edge and towards the castle, leaving her books and bag still against the tree where she was sitting happily just over twenty minutes ago.

Lily please … Lily please come back' James shouted and wanted to run after her, but he knew it was no use, he knew that he had ruined any chance to be with Lily … He sat down by the tree where all of her belongings were and slowly put her charms book in his hands, and moved it up to his face feelings like he was about to cry … he always ruined everything…


	9. Once An Ignorant Pig

Lily ran up to the Gryffindor common room, tears flooded her eyes, she knew in her mind that James Potter was capable of doing something as awful as this, but her heart never let her believe it, until now that is. She looked down at her watch, 4.30, which meant that dinner was starting soon; she didn't know whether she could stomach it though. In the common room Lily found Remus on a chair reading a book.

'How could you Remus, I thought you were my friend, how could you not tell me what Potter was up to?' She shouted as she made her way towards where he was sat, she didn't blame Remus of course, but she was so angry she didn't no who to shout or scream at.

'Oh, so I take it James has told you about the whole mind reading thing, but in my defence Lily I did tell him about a hundred times that it was fair on you to just keep reading your mind like that' Remus explained and Lily's eyes opened wider and she crossed her arms.

'What mind reading thing? I'm on about him being an Animagus and making me talk about all of my feelings to a Stag…' She asked and as soon Remus realised that he'd made matters a thousand times worse, he jumped up off his chair and made his way towards Lily.

'He did what? Lily I had no idea about that' Remus said and but Lily scoffed at him.

'No but you knew about him reading my mind didn't you, and you didn't even care to warn me?' Lily said angrily and Remus sighed.

'Lil … I didn't want to hurt you, I wanted James to realise himself that he was treating you unfairly'

'Yeah well … for your information… you did a great job of not letting me get hurt' with these words Lily ran past the other Gryffindor's in the common room and up to her dormitory. The rest of her friends had already finished their lessons and were unpacking their bags.

'Lils where you been Hun? What's the matter?' Louise asked when she noticed Lily's blotchy red face. She ran up to Lily, who stood still at the door and gave her a hug, and Lily reacted by crying louder on her friends shoulder.

'Lily sweetheart, what's happened?' Amy said rubbing her friends back and Lily lifted her head up slowly of Louise's shoulder.

'Jam… Potter … he did exactly what I thought he'd do, screw me over, make me out to be a laughing stock, he manipulated me into telling all of my feelings to him…'Lily managed to say through sobs, she let go of Louise and made her way over to her four poster.

'How did he?' Michelle asked as all the girls followed Lily, who shook her head.

'I don't even want to talk about him, the guy makes me sick' she said through sniffs.

'Oh Lily, you're far too good for him anyway, he doesn't deserve you' Alice said and Lily nodded her head.

'Yeah … Yeah I know, I don't even know why I'm crying, I just thought he'd changed you know? And now I know that he hasn't' Lily sniffed as her friends crowded around her.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

James ran into the common room twenty minutes later to be greeted by Remus.

'She's in her dormitory, well done on telling her about the whole mind reading thing by the way, oh wait, you didn't! You just went and manipulated her even more, and I'm sorry to tell you this but when she walked in and started shouting at ME for your insensitiveness I just assumed that it was due to you doing the right thing and telling her about the mind reading, so now, accidentally, she knows' Remus said and James put his head in his hands, he moved over to the sofa and threw himself down.

'Remus, that time it was accidental, I only did because I thought it would be easier to tell her, the only reason she found out that I was the Stag was because she was saying all this deep intimate stuff about our relationship, and I couldn't stand lying to her even more'

'Well you may have had the right idea, but you certainly didn't have the right head on, what did you think she would do, forgive you on the spot and you two would become an item?' Remus argued and sat down next to James.

'No' James shouted and he punched the arm of the sofa next to him. The other Gryffindor's around the room stared at the two friends, James looked around to them all and shouted 'Get lost the lot of you' some walked towards their dormitories and others to the portrait hole. When the common room was empty James turned back round to Remus

'No I didn't, I don't know what I thought, and it doesn't even matter now she hates me more than ever' James said and quietly sighed and Remus put his hand on his back.

'Prongs, I'm one of your best friends, but for once I have no sympathy. I told you from the beginning that all this would end in tears and I was right' He explained and James nodded slightly, his head looking down to the floor.

'I've got to sort all this out' James said and lifted up his head to look at Remus, who looked worn out and rolled his eyes.

'James I think personally that you just leave it, as least for a while, don't you think that your creative ideas have got you into enough trouble and heartbreak for the day? Just leave her for a while'

'What so she can carry on hating me you mean?'

'Maybe, maybe not, but promise me that you won't do anything like this ever again? I will try and help as much as I can, but at the minute I think I'm in the doghouse with Lily as well, for being friends with such a pig' Remus said and James nodded unhappily. They sat up off the sofa and Remus walked towards the portrait hole.

'Come on, dinner will be ready now' He said and James nodded, he looked back at the stairs leading to the girls dormitories, sighed and then followed Remus, his thoughts only on the girl that was sobbing her heart up those stairs, and it hurt him to realise that he couldn't do or think of anything that would fix what he had done.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………


	10. Plans Over Butterbeers

That weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend, and Lily hadn't properly spoken to anyone since the incident with James happened. She didn't even take notice of the fact that James Potter was alive, let alone begging for her forgiveness the day after it had happened. She still spoke to her friends, but not in the bubbly, happy way that she used to, which worried them. While Lily was in the bathroom on the Saturday morning the girls quickly huddled around Michelle's bed.

'So, what are we going to do about Lily? I can't stand seeing her like this' Louise said staring at the closed bathroom door.

'Yeah I agree, but what can we do? we all know that Lily is extremely stubborn, and it's obvious that she feels really betrayed, I suppose since everything happened she doesn't know who to trust' Alice agreed.

'Do you think she'll come to Hogsmeade today?' Louise said and the girls nodded as they heard Lily bang something in the bathroom. Amy looked towards the door and back to the girls.

'She has to, it's the only chance to get a smile back on her face, and a day away from the school would do her the world of good I think' she said and the girls went suddenly quiet as they heard Lily exit from the bathroom and move towards her bed, not even looking up to notice the girls all huddled together.

'Hey Lils, do you want to come with us to Hogsmeade today?' Louise asked and Lily turned around to face the girls with books in her hand.

'No, I was going to go and revise in the library today instead, I'm not really in the mood for Hogsmeade' Lily said and the girls groaned.

'Oh please Lily, it'll be just the thing you need to cheer yourself up' Amy said and Lily rolled her eyes.

'Yeah defiantly, watching people swarm around following the Marauders buy all sorts of rubbish to terrorise more people in this school, great day out' Lily sighed and turned back around to place the books in her bag, picked it up and put it over her shoulder.

'I'm sorry, but its one place today that I really don't want to be, but have a good day though' Lily said and then walked out of the girls dormitories as she heard the girls shout her name, but chose to ignore them and carry on to the library.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

'Come on Prongs, you've got to come, we need to go into Zonko's'' Sirius moaned and James groaned in reply.

'We've already got everything from Zonko's, double of everything in Zonko's actually' James argued back and Remus turned around.

'James I really think you should come, just to have a day out and about' Remus said and James shrugged.

'Nah, I'll just hang around here today' James answered and Sirius looked offended.

'Fine, but I can promise you that we'll come back with lots of new stuff and you'll be all jealous because it's all ours!' Sirius whined and James laughed at his friend's reaction.

'I think I may be able to cope, and if not, I know you'll share them out anyway' James sniggered and Sirius smiled slyly. James said his goodbyes to his friends and then walked out into in transfiguration courtyard and sat on the benches quietly, watching the first and second years play exploding snap on the pavement on their day off, remembering a time when life for him was that easy to.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Lily was sat in the library writing out her potions essay that was due in for Monday. Her mind kept on moving to the thought of James, and every time she thought about him her stomach turned in anger. She read and re-read her now finished essay and shoved it into her bag. She looked at the clock on the wall, eleven AM; all of her friends would already have got to the village by now and were all probably in Honeydukes. She jumped up from her seat, grabbed her bag and walked out of the library. She didn't know where to go, or what to do. She had already finished her homework and didn't want to go back to the common room sat there all on her own; maybe staying here wasn't the best idea after all. She headed for the covered bridge and down towards the stone circle, and then up to the owlery when she realised that there was nothing else to do. When she finally got to the Owlery she made her way up to the top floor and looked out of the window. She saw Hogwarts in all of its glory. Its windows glittered due to the sun shining down on them, the lake sparkled and Lily sighed heavily. She realised how lucky she was to be here, at Hogwarts. She remembered her first day and how she and Severus had promised to always stay together, no matter what house they were in or what anyone else said. She sniffed and wiped the memory out of her head, she had enough to deal with lately without thinking about Snape again.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

'We need a plan, we need to get Prongs and Lily talking again' Sirius said taking a sip of butterbeer. Around him were the remaining Marauders, minus James, Michelle, Amy, Alice and Louise.

'We need to get Lily back to normal you mean, I think Potter deserves whatever Lily throws at him' Louise said and Sirius coughed into his butterbeer.

'Hey, don't get being all defensive, we've all decided that it's a good idea to get them to be civil to each other again, none of us can handle how awkward either of them are being' Sirius spluttered and the group nodded their head in agreement.

'Right, well we could lock them in moaning Myrtles bathroom until they start talking again?' Amy suggested with a giggle and Remus shook his head.

'No it wouldn't work, they're both gifted with magic, they would get out of their in five minutes' Remus replied and the group fell silent again.

'Well what about sending secret letters to each other, but instead of them sending them we do instead' Sirius suggested but this time Alice sighed and rolled her eyes.

'Yeah great idea until they start talking and each has no idea what the other is going on about' Alice snapped and Sirius groaned.

'Fine maybe not the best plan' he said stressed and the group fell silent again.

'This is harder then I thought it would be…' Remus said sipping his butterbeer.

'Well this is the easy bit, it's putting the plan in motion that will be the difficult bit' Michelle replied and a small groan was heard from the group.

'Well, at least our moral is high' Sirius said sarcastically and walked up to the bar for another round of butterbeer, it was going to be a long day.


	11. For Their Own Good?

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognise, all of it belongs to J.K Rowling. **

That afternoon James and Sirius sat in the Gryffindor common room playing a game of wizard chess.

'You smashed my knight, so much for being best friends hey Prongs' Sirius whined as the smashed pieces of the Knight evaporated into the air.

'Oh well, that's what happens when you stop concentrating' James replied smugly as Sirius moved his pawn.

'So Jamie…' Sirius started and then looked up to James, who was frowning at the nickname.

'What have I told you about calling me that? You make me sound like a little girl' James said, whining as Sirius had before. He then smiled as his own knight smashed into one of Sirius' pawns.

'Serves you right' James said smiling and Sirius groaned.

'I don't know why I bother playing… to bloody good that's your problem, and don't take that as a compliment' Sirius said and smiled at his best friend, who was looking down thoughtfully at the chess set.

'Well I wouldn't say that, I managed to mess things up big time with Lily' James mumbled and Sirius nodded.

'That was what I was going to ask you about, has anything more been said, or thought?' Sirius inquired and James shrugged his shoulders.

'She's not spoken to me; and since the argument with her I've not been able to hear any thoughts of any girl, I think the spell may have worn off… I've tried with a few girls I've randomly walked past the last few days, but I didn't hear anything' James explained and Sirius nodded to show he understood.

'Maybe it's for the best I suppose' Sirius replied quietly and James nodded.

'Defiantly, thanks to that I'm back to square one with Lily'

'No James, from what I can remember the reason you're back to square one with Miss Evans is because you turned into a stag and then sat there while she blurted out all of her feelings, and then she found out about the mind reading thing, which may have sealed the deal on her hating you for a long time' Sirius said looking down at his pawns, deciding which ones to move.

'Yeah, thanks for that Sirius you've made me feel so much better' James groaned and put his head in his hands and slid off the sofa and onto the floor.

'What am I going to do Sirius?' James asked and took his glasses off to rub his eyes.

'No idea mate, I'm not exactly the one to go to for serious relationship advice, that's Remus, he's abit wiser you see' Sirius said as he moved one of his three chess pieces that were left.

'I don't know, you can have your moments' James said as he lifted up to take a move.

'Aw thanks Jamie that means a lot' Sirius said in a baby voice and James laughed.

'Actually I take it back' James said sitting back down on the floor and Sirius looked down at him.

'I'm actually offended, wait … wait … I'm over it now, so now I'm over it I can give you advice, even though I may be terrible. This may be a crazy idea but why don't you try and just talk to Lily?' Sirius said and James scoffed at his best friend.

'Do you not think I've tried? It's all I've done since it all happened, but she just doesn't want to know' he replied putting his head back into his hands.

'Well make her listen, put her into a situation that she can't walk away from, the reason you are both still arguing is because you're both as stubborn as the other one' Sirius said.

'Yes I suppose so, I suppose it can't hurt to try' James said lifting his back up so he lent against the sofa.

'Good man, now where was I?' Sirius said looking down at the chess board and James laughed.

'Oh by the way Sirius, I check mated you about five minutes ago' James said laughing and Sirius groaned into his hands.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

'So did he fall for it?' Louise asked Sirius when they met up in the bathroom of the boys dormitories that night.

'Yeah, I told him to put her in a situation that she couldn't get out of, so at the minute he's probably downstairs coming up with a master plan to lock her in a broom cupboard or something' Sirius said with a smile, and the group responded by smiling back.

'So what do we do now?' Michelle asked, sitting on the edge of the bath tub.

'We interrogate Lily, make her follow us, and then lock her in with James' Louise said happily and Remus coughed lightly.

'One tiny problem in our brilliant plan, how are we going to get James up there?'

'Easy, we'll just tell him that you've had a chat with Lily, and managed to talk her round into having a conversation with him' Sirius said smiling broadly at his idea. The group smiled to each other and then walked out of the bathroom. Sirius, Remus and Peter left first so James wouldn't get suspicious when he saw the girls leaving his dormitory.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

'Lily!' Michelle shouted as the girls finally got back to their own dormitories.

'What?' Lily shouted from underneath her bed, the girls walked over to her, watching as she was struggling to reach something.

'Erm Lily, silly question here but what are you doing?' Louise asked, and couldn't help laugh at the sight.

'I … was … practising … transfiguring … a cup … into a mouse … it worked … but now the …. The mouse has … has come under here … and … and I can't …. Can't get him to… to come out' Lily managed to say, it was dark under the bed and she felt dust particles going up her nose and into her mouth as she spoke, she heard a muffle above her from the girls talking.

'Accio mouse' she heard Michelle say and a flash of light appeared to her left hand side and she saw a quick glimpse of a mouse wiz past her nose. She climbed out from underneath the bed, her hair a mess and breathing heavily, she stood up and wiped down the dust from off her clothing.

'I completely forgot I could do that' Lily said groaning to herself as she sat on her bed, feeling exhausted.

'How long had you been chasing it?' Louise asked looking at where the mouse had been transfigured back into a cup.

'About twenty minutes; and not once did I think about getting my wand out… how stupid of me… I think I'm going crazy' Lily huffed out and lay on her bed. The girls looked at each other and Amy took lead.

'We came up because we wondered if you wanted to come with us to help with our Charms homework, we could really do with your help … and we've founds a new room to practice in' Amy said, sounding excited, the thought of what was to come made her want to laugh.

'Oh erm, yeah of course I can. Just give me a minute or two to catch my breath' Lily said and smiled at the thought of how unhealthy she was, if someone had said to her that chasing a mouse around would ware her out this much, she'd have been extremely offended. She lifted up about five minutes later, after the girls had had their daily general chat. She changed her top, which still felt dusty, and walked out of the common room with her friends; she couldn't help but feel that they had been quieter than usual. She put it down to the stress of exams and then walked across the seventh floor with them.

'We're here' Louise said and Lily looked around, all she could see was the corridor, and a vase stood in the corner. She looked at Louise confused when the wall answered her question. The wall opened up to reveal a door. Lily opened her eyes wide.

'What on earth…' Lily managed to say and the girls smiled.

'Welcome to the room of requirement, here we can …revise … without any interruptions; and it's not exactly against the rules because it's an official room' Alice said smugly and Lily laughed.

'That's fantastic' Lily replied and Louise opened the door and Lily was the first to walk in. The room wasn't very big, and didn't have anything inside; it looked more like a larger version of an empty broom closet than a place to study Charms. She walked into the corner of the room to see if there was anything to practice on and turned back around swiftly when she heard a door slam. She ran over to the now locked door and started banging her fists against it.

'WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT?' Lily screamed and the girl's voices then boomed in the room, as if they were walking through a microphone into the room.

'Lily can you hear us? I suppose you can … this is for your own good, you'll understand what we mean soon enough, see you later on, and sorry' She heard her friends voices fade away and she sat in the far corner of the room, her mind rushing with ideas about what her friends were on about and how she would get revenge.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Meanwhile the Marauders had just left the common room. Remus was explaining to James what 'Lily' had said to him during their 'conversation' earlier that day.

'I think I managed to talk to her round into letting you have your point of view, Lily's like that, sees the best in people' Remus explained and James nodded, his insides burst. He had been thinking for hours about how to try and convince Lily to try and give him a chance, and she had come to him instead. He thought it was too good to be true, but trusted his friends enough to know that they wouldn't deliberately get him into more trouble where Lily was concerned.

'She said she'd meet you in the room of requirement because you get fewer interruptions there, you can have a proper chat and sort all of this mess out' Remus said again and James nodded, hardly listening to his friends words, his head was buzzing.

They led James to the room and the doors opened as they had for Lily. James walked inside and immediately noticed Lily in the corner of the room, head in her hands. The door slammed behind him and Lily lifted up her head and jumped to her feet. She stormed up to him and screamed.

'This was all your stupid idea wasn't it Potter!' James was taken aback by her words and all the thoughts he had in his head thirty seconds before were all gone. He realised he had been stitched up by his best friends. Suddenly their voices boomed through the room just as the girls had.

'Right now you two, we've worked really hard on this plan and we hope you won't make it go all balls up. So make up and stop this stupid bickering' Sirius said, and James could tell that his friend had the biggest grin possible across his face.

'Have fun' was the last thing they heard Sirius say as his voice faded away into the distance. James stared at Lily, whose face was anger stricken.

'I think we've been stitched up' James said weakly and Lily spat back.

'You think?'

'Hey this isn't my fault; it's not exactly like I knew what they were going to do!' James argued back and Lily scoffed at him.

'I'm telling the truth!' James groaned and walked over to the corner of the room and sat down, and Lily did the same on the opposite side. James lifted his head up wondering how long his supposed to be friends would leave him there for.


	12. Trying To Understand

'So how long are we exactly supposed to keep them in there?' Louise asked Sirius when they all made their way down to the Great Hall for supper.

'Until they learn to sort out their differences' Sirius answered, still smug that the first part of the plan had worked.

'That'll be a long time then, she was extremely annoyed with him, with good reason' Amy said as they sat down at the Gryffindor table and picked up a plate.

'Yes, but this is the perfect chance to put all that stuff behind them, start a fresh' Remus added as he picked up a piece of chicken and filled his cup with pumpkin juice.

'See … fool proof' Sirius said proudly as he took the pumpkin juice from Remus and went to pour it into his cup, but the cup fell and Sirius accidentally poured it onto his lap.

'Yeah … I don't really think that it's completely fool proof, considering a fool thought of it' Alice laughed along with the rest of the group, as Sirius smiled slightly, pointed his wand at his wet trousers and dried them within seconds.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

James was becoming hungry. Not only had he and Lily been stuck in the room of requirement for half an hour, but neither of them had spoken. Each just sat in the corners of room completely silent. James looked at his watch, seven thirty; he closed his eyes as he imagined his friends sitting in the Great Hall eating supper laughing about how well their plan had gone. One thing they over looked was the fact that Lily hated him. James coughed as he slowly felt his mouth go dry. He looked up at Lily, who was circling the floor with her finger; he heard her groan and he looked back over the empty room. She had stopped hurling abuse at him straight after their friends had left. He hated the silence; it just made the whole situation even more awkward. He decided that he couldn't sit there in silence much longer. He lifted himself up with a groan and made his way slowly over to where Lily was sat on the floor.

'Can I sit here?' He said quietly and she looked up at him, a frown on her face.

'I'd rather you not' she said hastily and James rolled his eyes.

'We've got to sort this out' James replied louder.

'We don't have to sort anything out; it's worked for us the past seven years, why all of a sudden is it so different?' Lily argued and James sat down, whether she wanted him to or not.

'Because this time I know what I've done wrong' James said back but immediately regretted it as he saw the anger rise in her. She stood up quickly; ready to start a shouting match.

'You've only just realised? After every horrible thing you've done over the past seven years, you've only just realised that you've done something wrong?' Lily screamed and James stood up quickly, hoping the room was soundproof.

'I know what a prat I've been Lily, but I spent the entire summer trying to mature, feeling remorse for what I'd done to people, I feel like I'm more grown up now' James said and Lily scoffed at him.

'Yes of course you are, that's why you manipulated me in the worst way possible' she replied, disgust in her voice.

'I didn't say I was perfect at it yet, I was just so afraid that I'd lose the friendship that we had' James sighed and Lily laughed loudly.

'What friendship? It wasn't a real friendship, maybe it felt like a real friendship but that's because I didn't know I was being taken advantage of' Lily shouted and James cringed.

'Please don't put it like that…'

'Then how should I put it Potter… now at least you know what I felt like when I found out. You used me and didn't even think about what you were doing, how what you were doing would effect me when I found out' Lily replied angrily. She sat down and put her head in her hands.

'I just hate you sometimes' Lily said quietly and James sat down.

'Only sometimes … I suppose that's an improvement' James said and Lily looked up, glaring at him.

'Don't take it as a compliment, trust me that's not what I was trying to do' Lily said and they both went quiet until Lily broke the silence.

'What possessed you to do it?' She asked, looking at James, who went from looking from her to look at the floor in silence, finding the right words to say.

'I wanted you to like me I suppose; I know I went about it the wrong way, when I saw you in the forest I went to find you to tell you about what I'd done, but yet again another stupid idea formed into my head, and I can't apologise enough' James explained and Lily leaned her head back against the cold hard wall.

'It doesn't matter how many times you apologise Potter, I don't forgive you for what you did' Lily replied and James nodded.

'I know, and I accept that'

'So there is nothing to fix' Lily said getting back up and walked over to the other side of the room, James felt himself flare up and followed her.

'Of course there is, we can start again, you can find out how I've tried to mature, tried to be a better person' James argued.

'I don't think I can … I just can't get my head around what possessed you to do that, yes I know you wanted me to like you etc, but why … why really do it' Lily sighed and sat back down, she didn't think she'd moved so much in about two weeks. James sat down next to her and started to explain.

'Lily, things are happening in the outside world, away from the comfort of Hogwarts' James started but Lily cut him off.

'James I know about You Know Who, I'm not stupid'

'I'm not saying you are, will you please just listen' James said and was greeted with silence from Lily, which he took as a move to carry on talking.

'Like I was saying, bad, dark things are happening in the outside world, people are dying and going missing, people are losing their family and friends left right and centre, I'm terrified of what's going to happen when we leave and get out there. I finally understood that I needed to grow up, needed to fully understand what was going on. I realised that I couldn't fight back being immature. I wanted to grow up, and wanted you to get to know the real me, not the side of me that shows off in front of other people' James explained and Lily nodded her head silently, and James continued.

'With You Know Who gathering more and more followers and becoming more powerful I came to the conclusion that I wanted to try and pursue what I wanted, before it was to late, and the first thing that came into my head was you. Lily you know that I'm crazy about you and the thought of us parting ways out of Hogwarts and never seeing you again scares me more than anything else. I know that I went the wrong way about trying to convince you to like me, but I was just desperate to have you accept me, and I know that sounds selfish but it's the only way I can explain it' James finished and Lily nodded again, and then finally caught her breath.

'I don't know what to say … that's completely different to the excuse I had in my mind' Lily said quietly and James shrugged his shoulders.

'Well that's the truth, make of it what you will' James said and stood up again and walked over to the door.

'There is something that our friends overlooked when they locked us in here' James said turning around to Lily, and getting his wand out of his pocket and twirling it in his hands. Lily stood up and walked over to him while taking her wand out of her pocket also. They pointed their wands at the door and in union shouted.

'Oblivio' and the doors burst open with force; a frightened first year stopped and stared into the room where Lily and James were now covered in dust.

'Well why didn't you do that an hour ago?' Lily said turning around to James, who had taken off his glasses and wiped them on his shirt.

'Because I wanted to sort things out' James said simply and Lily nodded, suddenly James felt awkward again as they exited the room.

'So …' James said and Lily cut him off.

'I understand now why you did it, I'm not saying that I'm happy about it, I just understand, and I want us to be friends, yeah?' Lily said and James smiled, nodding his head.

'Sounds good to me, now lets go and give our _friends _a shock' James smiled put Lily held him back.

'It would be a bigger hock for them to come up and see us gone, other than us going to find them. Fancy a walk somewhere?' Lily asked and James laughed and smiled at Lily's smartness.

'Sure why not, fancy a trip to Hogsmeade?' James offered and Lily moved her eyes into slits and frowned.

'How, we won't be able to get there?' Lily said and James laughed.

'Lily, I'm a Marauder, trust me when I say I can get us to Hogsmeade without being seen' James said slyly as he led Lily to the one eyed witch halfway up the marble staircase to Gryffindor tower. He tapped the statue with his wand and Lily's face was of utter shock when the passage opened up, she laughed and looked at James.

'After you' James said feeling chivalrous and watched as Lily entered the passage, following, he closed the passage after he entered.


	13. High Class Rebel

Half an hour later Sirius was sat in the Gryffindor common room with Remus and Peter. Remus was reading a potions book and Peter trying to beat Sirius at exploding snap.

'You know, it's wonderfully quiet in here tonight' Remus said looking up from his book, towards his friends who were sat on the floor; and in between them a table with cards on.

'That is because Moony, my friend, there isn't any arguing, bitterness or stupidity going on between Prongs and Lily' He replied with a smile.

'That's a good point actually, when should we go and get them out?' Remus asked and Sirius shrugged his shoulders.

'We'll go after I've beat Pete at this game' Sirius said and looked up to see Peter frowning.

'I mean … when me and Pete have finished the game' Sirius corrected, smiling at his friend whose full deck of cards were still sat in front of him. Remus smiled and shut his book.

'I'll go and find the girls, I think they're in the Library, we'll meet you on the seventh floor in about twenty minutes then?' Remus said standing up, Sirius and Remus nodded and Remus made his way out of the common room.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Meanwhile in the cellar to Honeydukes sweet shop James was introducing Lily to the art of rule breaking.

'How on earth did you find this place?' Lily asked in awe as James closed the passage door and led her across the cellar floor.

'Just came across it I suppose, I know loads more passages than this one' James replied and put his finger to his lips, shushing Lily, so he could tell if there were any voices coming from downstairs. After he heard all the all clear he held Lily's hand softly and led her down the stairs, and into the shop. As it was the evening the shop was closed and the pair made their way through the dark shop. James pulled his wand out of his robe pocked and whispered at the locked door, it opened immediately and the pair walked out onto the quiet village street.

'This is fantastic!' Lily said after walking down the street for a couple of seconds.

'Why thank you … I never thought I'd hear that coming from your lips I must admit, finding it fantastic to break rules' James said with a smile and Lily laughed at him.

'I can be a rebel to you know' Lily smiled and James opened his mouth in a mocking shocked way. They made their way to a bench and sat down.

'So then Miss Rebel, what's the most rebellious thing you've ever done?' James said and Lily shrugged her shoulders.

'Oh you're going to have to do better than that if you want to impress me' James smiled and it was Lily's turn to open her mouth in fake awe.

'Oh well I am sorry' Lily laughed and looked down at the floor; she noticed James stay quiet and knew this was an invitation to spill her most rebellious moment.

'Nothing much really … I guess I was just bragging' Lily said looking down at the floor and James smiled.

'That's ok… don't worry I don't think any less of you because you're not a rebel' he replied and she laughed quietly.

'I should think not … but oh well, you're rebel enough for the both of us' Lily commented and James nodded.

'I suppose so, I wouldn't call myself a rebel though, a slight bender of the rules yes, but I'm not cool enough to be a full time rebel' James said and winked at Lily, who shook her head with a smile and looked back to the floor, twiddling her thumbs together.

'I should have brought the invisibility cloak really, but I was in to much of a rush to even think about it' James sighed and Lily lifted her head up.

'Did you just say invisibility cloak?' She asked impressed, and he mentally smacked himself.

'Erm yes, it's a family heirloom; my father gave it to me when I started Hogwarts' James replied with a faint smile, and Lily looked very impressed.

'Explains why you and the rest of your group get away with everything' Lily commented and James nodded. She laughed faintly and it was his time to look at the floor.

'I never thought I'd be having this conversation, where I'd think it was acceptable to be a rebel and you sit there all modest' Lily laughed rolling her eyes at herself, they had become physically closer as the wind had picked up and Lily felt a breeze go up her arms. She shivered quickly and crossed her arms. James noticed this and sighed.

'Do you want to go somewhere warmer? Continue our nice chat' James asked and Lily nodded and stood up off the bench.

'Come on then, the Three Broomsticks should still be open' James said as he lifted himself up off the bench.

'But won't they call up to the school and tell them that we're here?' Lily asked worried and James shook his head.

'Nah, Rosmerta is used to me and the guys always popping in, so don't worry about anything like that' James said with another wink and led Lily through the village and into the quiet pub.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Sirius and Peter made their way out of the Gryffindor common room' and across the grand staircase to the entrance of the Seventh floor. Sirius could just see his friend's expressions now, Lily and James both thanking him for his brilliant plan to make them get along. Maybe he had started a beautiful friendship, and maybe a relationship. Sirius smiled to himself as his thoughts continued to escalate. He noticed Remus and the girls stood on the stairs next to the entrance to the seventh floor. They said their hellos and then eagerly made their way to the Room of Requirement. Sirius found his pace quicken as they became closer and closer to the room, he couldn't believe that his plan had actually worked. He turned the corner and all his happy, ingenious and excited thoughts exited his mind and all he felt was shock and horror. The room's brick wall had been completely demolished, the floor was covered in dust and there was defiantly no sign of Lily and James anywhere. Sirius couldn't think of anything to say …

'Well, that plan worked out well didn't it?' Louise said with a sigh and Sirius turned his head round to face her, looking damaged.

'But … but … I don't understand? How could this happen?' Sirius asked his friends, dumbstruck.

'I think I can guess' Remus replied and the group looked at him, looking for answers.

'We forgot to take their wands; Lily and James are both a powerful and skilful witch and wizard. Unfortunately we overlooked one minor detail … the fact they can use magic' Remus explained and Sirius' expression was that of distress. All the thought and planning that went into the plan had been thwarted by Sirius overlooking the minor detail of wands. Sirius groaned loudly and walked away from the room.

'Sirius wait, we've got to find them. They could be anywhere, we need to find them' Louise said and Sirius shook his head.

'They're around here somewhere; I can't really be bothered to find them, they ruined my plan' Sirius said disheartened and Amy groaned.

'No Sirius, we all overlooked a problem that happened to bite us back in the ass' Michelle said and Sirius nodded his head slowly.

'Suppose so, just leave them to whatever they're doing' Sirius said.

'How do you know that they're together? They could be having a major fight somewhere, or they could have already had a fight and are on opposite sides of the castle, either way we should go and find them' Amy said and Remus shook his head.

'Nah don't worry about them, they're head students, neither of them have a lack of brains, just leave them to whatever they're doing. Because I also get the feeling that when we do finally catch up with either of them, we're in trouble' Remus said and the realisation came across the group that they would more than likely be in trouble with their two friends for tricking them into talking to each other.

'Good point Remus, I think we should go back to the common room, before someone catches us out after hours' Alice said and the group nodded and made their way back to the common room.

Two hours later James or Lily hadn't arrived back, the group were beginning to get tired and none of them thought they would be able to stay up any longer. One by one the girls made their way up to bed until it was just Sirius and Remus left in the Gryffindor common room.

'Sirius, don't worry about it, you tried and you failed, it happens to all of us, it was a good idea while it lasted mate' Remus said clutching his friends shoulder.

'Yeah I suppose so, oh well' Sirius said jumping out of his seat and walking up to the boy's dormitory, along with Remus. Sirius lay awake in bed for another half an hour, and James still hadn't returned, he turned around in bed and fell gently to sleep, half of him worrying about the whereabouts and wellbeing of his best friend.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Meanwhile James and Lily were discussing their friends as they walked down the dark, quiet street of Hogsmeade. The pub had closed over an hour ago but neither of them was ready to go back to normality yet, and decided to stay around the village.

'I wonder what their faces were like when they realised we were gone' Lily said smiling widely at James, who shrugged with a smile, Lily laughed slightly and shook her head. What she had done tonight was so out of the ordinary, for one she had never spoken to someone for three hours none stop without becoming the slightest bit bored, every sentence they spoke was said with more excitement and interest.

'I suppose we should be getting back, they're probably all getting worried' Lily said with a slight frown and James nodded slowly.

'Yeah I suppose so, come on' James said and Lily followed James back to Honeydukes, as they quietly walked up the stairs, into the cellar and back through the passage way. When they arrived back outside the one eyed witch Lily couldn't stop laughing, James had accidentally banged his head on the top of the passageway when the ceiling had become low and then tripped over a box that had been in his way as he exited the passage.

'Hey, Hey, Hey … so I'm not as short as I used to be, no need to laugh' James said with a smile, and Lily laughed more, but more quietly as not to be caught wondering the hallways at night.

'I'm … I'm sorry … but you have to admit it was funny' Lily whispered through her laughter and James pretended to be offended and frowned slightly, but at hearing Lily's laughter the frown soon turned back into a smile.

'Come on, quick' James said grasping Lily's robe and making his way up the stairs and towards the Gryffindor common room. Once inside they stopped at the bottom of the stairs which led of to either dormitory.

'So…' James said quietly and Lily nodded with a smile.

'So… I had a good night, thanks' Lily said sweetly and James smiled.

'No problem, it was my pleasure, was a good night, I enjoyed talking to you and it's a shame really that it has to end' James replied.

'Well you know; all good things have to come to an end at some point' Lily pointed out and James sighed.

'It doesn't have to end though, you could always come up to my dormitory, and we could continue our chat up there? Only if you wanted to of course, the others will be fast asleep by now, and obviously I wouldn't be able to get into your dormitory' James said and Lily smiled.

'Oh you're quite the rebel but still can't grasp how to get up the girls staircase' Lily mocked and James shrugged his shoulders.

'What can I say? Godric Gryffindor was obviously a more powerful wizard than me' James smiled and Lily laughed again, but regained herself fast.

'Oh go on then, I guess it can't hurt for another hour, I'm not tired anyway' Lily said and they both walked up to the 7th year boys dormitories. They sat on James bed, pulled the curtains so they didn't disturb any of the others and continued their conversation.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Lily woke up suddenly to a male voice laughing loudly; she quickly lifted herself up and looked at her surroundings. The bed sheets were different to hers, and the curtains were closed around her. She realised that she must have fell asleep in James' bed last night and put her head in her hands when she realised she'd have to walk through the dormitory to get to her own, passing Sirius, Remus and Peter on her way out. She noticed that James had disappeared and wondered if he was out there with his friends, probably gossiping about last night. 'No' thought Lily wisely, she felt she knew James better now after their complete four and a half hour conversation that last the entire evening last night. She listened carefully to the voices on the other side of the curtain, and she couldn't make James voice out, but knew that it was Sirius, Remus and Peter. She waited until Remus and Peter had left the dormitory and she heard Sirius make his way into the bathroom. She realised this was her chance to leave the room without being spotted; she pulled the curtain across and jumped from the bed, and quietly made her way over to the door. As she pressed her hand on the handle she heard a tutting noise behind her, she turned around to see Sirius stood at the bathroom door.

'I forgot my towel' Sirius said with a smile, Lily nodded and pressed her hand on the door handle a little harder.

'What's the rush Lil? Have a late night last night?' Sirius mocked with a smile and Lily turned around to him.

'It would have been better if you hadn't locked me and James in that room' she said making her way towards him.

'Yes but Lily, if I hadn't have done that you wouldn't be here now, calling Prongs James instead of Potter, so I guess my plan did work after all' Sirius said smiling warmly at Lily.

'Yes … I suppose it did, but that still doesn't justify doing it' Lily replied, smiling on the inside, she loved trying to wind up Sirius.

'Yes well I must admit, I think yours and Prong's disappearing act made up for that, and then you wake up in his bed, what is a young man to think?' Sirius smiled and Lily rolled her eyes.

'We were talking, and I fell asleep' Lily said and Sirius nodded, he turned back round and went back into the bathroom.

'Sure, talking' Lily heard Sirius say from inside the bathroom, she shook her head and walked out of the dormitory. She noticed James in the Gryffindor common room when she went downstairs, she was so happy it was a Sunday, she didn't have to rush around getting ready to go to lessons. He noticed her walk down the stairs in the clothes she had worn last night and smiled broadly at her.

'Morning, I realised I should have woken you up but you looked so peaceful, did they notice it was you? I tried to make it look like it was just me so they wouldn't guess, but Remus and Peter have already been down' James said as she stood up to greet Lily.

'I tried but Sirius caught me on my way out, he seems to think we did something last night' Lily smiled and James shook his head.

'Just ignore him; his brain needs to catch up with his hormones' James explained and Lily laughed.

'And to think last week that's the exact same thing I'd be saying about you' Lily said sweetly and James mockingly smiled.

'Well isn't it great that it's not like that anymore' James replied and Lily smiled and nodded.

'And in the meantime we can wind up Sirius about what happened last night' James said winking at Lily, who shook her head.

'No'

'But…'

'No'

'Damn' James finished and sat down back on the chair.


	14. Christmas Plans

'So … you and Potter then Lily' Louise asked her friend when Lily got back up to her dormitory. Lily rolled her eyes at her friend. She and James were planning payback on their so called friends for locking them in a room, even though the plan managed to work, they didn't let it ruin their fun.

'Me and James are just friends … more than I can say for you lot, locking me in that room' Lily said jumping onto her bed with a charms book in hand.

'Hey we did it for your own good, it worked anyway so stop whining. That reminds me, we're going into Hogsmeade later on to do our Christmas shopping, are you coming along?' Amy said and Lily nodded her head.

'Yeah, I haven't even thought about Christmas, and we finish Hogwarts for the term in a week's time, I completely forgot. Oh dear what am I going to get for everyone? I may get my parents and sister something from a muggle shop when I get home' Lily said and her friends nodded.

'Yeah there's no point bringing something magical home for your sister, she'd probably stomp on it or something' Michelle said laughing and Lily shrugged her shoulders.

'Well I wouldn't be surprised' Lily asked and Amy laughed.

'Well come on then, let's get ready before the place gets packed' Alice said jumping off her bed and running into the bathroom before any of the girls got a chance. Lily laughed and looked around the room, and noticed a significantly big black mark on the right hand wall' it looked like a burn mark.

'Erm girls, why is there a giant burn mark in our wall?' Lily asked and Michelle glared at Louise.

'Well someone decided it would be a good idea…' She started but Louise interrupted.

'Hey I can tell the story, and stop glaring at me, it was an accident! Last night I decided that I'd practice some charms, you know so I can get the hang of them. It didn't work very well and I ended up blowing a whole in the wall, we managed to fix it but we can't get the burn mark out' Louise explained and Lily nodded slowly.

'Seems like I missed a great party then' Lily smiled and Michelle scoffed.

'I was just about to say that you'd know about it if you hadn't have been sleeping in a certain someone's bed' She said smiling slyly at Lily, who rolled her eyes.

'How many times do I have to tell you? Nothing happened' Lily argued.

'Yet' Amy added in slyly making Lily roll her eyes again.

'Never' Lily finished and it was the girls' turn to roll their eyes.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Meanwhile the Marauders had already made their way into Hogsmeade village.

'Hey Prongs, it's only a few weeks till Christmas, what are you going to buy me? Sirius subtly said to his best friend while they were wondering around Zonko's joke shop. James turned around to his friend and threw a 'magic mirror' at him.

'There you go mate, knock yourself out' James said and the mirror hit Sirius' head and then he caught it in his head.

'You almost did that for me yourself, come on Prongs what are you going to get me?' Sirius asked again and James sighed.

'Padfoot you ask me this every year, and have I ever told you what I'm going to buy you?' James said and Sirius pouted, frowned and shook his head.

'Never do that again' James laughed and Sirius' facial expression changed dramatically into a smirk.

'So that's a no on telling me what you're getting me?' Sirius said and James shot Sirius a dirty look.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

'So, what do you think about this for Michelle?' Lily asked Amy and Louise while they were in a shop in Hogsmeade. She had already picked out presents for Amy, Louise, Alice, Remus, Peter and Sirius. She just had Michelle and James to go. She was in two minds about buying James something, bearing in mind that they had only been on real speaking terms for less than twenty four hours. She had picked up a photo album for Michelle, and was intending to put pictures in there of all of their times together at Hogwarts. It felt more personal than just a box of regular chocolates. She walked up to the cashier and paid for the photo album and hid it in her bag before Michelle and Alice met them outside the shop.

'Where do you all want to now?' Lily said pushing her hair out of her eyes.

'The Three Broomsticks I suppose, has everyone finished their shopping?' Michelle said and everyone nodded.

'I've only got to get something for James now … but I don't know whether or not I want to get him something' Lily said as the group made their way over to the pub.

'Lily you have to, without a doubt he will get you something, and then you'll feel awful that you didn't bother' Louise said and opened the door to the pub and they had to raise their voices due to the noise in the pub.

'Yeah I suppose so, I might look when I get home and send it to him' Lily said and the girls nodded. Michelle went up to order the drinks and the rest of the girls walked around the pub to find a suitable table. When they found one their shopping bags hit the floor, coats went over the chairs and heads went on the table. Michelle returned with the drinks and as soon as she sat down they heard their names being called behind them. Lily turned her head to see the Marauders walking towards her. She smiled at them as they pulled chairs up around the table.

'Mind if we sit here?' Sirius said after he had already sat himself down next to Louise.

'No, not at all Black, do whatever you want' Louise said giving Sirius a filthy look and Sirius looked taken aback.

'Oh someone's got their knickers in a twist, calm down love what have I done wrong this time?' Sirius said and Louise shrugged her shoulders.

'Don't take it personally Sirius, she's suffering from the love bug' Amy giggled and Louise aimed a filthy look in her direction, but Amy chose to ignore it.

'It is contagious?' Peter asked quietly and the group laughed at him.

'Yes Pete it is, I'd stay away if I were you, it's not a great thing to have' James said winking at Lily, who suddenly felt her cheeks heat up, her voice screamed at what was going on, but as soon as it happened, it went away. Suddenly feeling embarrassed she looked down at the table and sipped her butterbeer.

An hour later they were finishing up their drinks and all decided to make their way back up to the castle together. Remus and Amy were in deep conversation and the N.E.W.T's exams that were coming up, Sirius and Louise were arguing, Michelle, Alice and Peter were all listening to Sirius and Louise argue and Lily and James walked behind all of their friends, deep in conversation.

'They're turning into the new you and me I reckon' James said pointing his head over to Sirius and Louise. Lily laughed and nodded.

'It seems that way doesn't it… they do look funny though' Lily said laughing at her friends.

'Yeah but to the outside we probably did as well' James suggested and Lily shrugged her shoulders.

'Yeah I suppose so…' She replied and suddenly the pair went quiet.

'So … what are you doing for the Christmas holidays?' Lily asked to stop the silence from continuing and James smiled.

'I'm going back home, going to spend the holidays just lazing around the house, might redecorate Sirius' room without him knowing, that might entertain me for an hour or two. I can't wait to see my family though …' James said and Lily nodded in agreement.

'Yeah I get what you mean, I always miss them so much, before I came to Hogwarts I'd never really gone anywhere without them' she explained.

'That's the same with me, I mean I went to stay with relatives maybe for a week in the summer, but that's about it… I actually wanted to ask you about the holidays' James said and Lily tilted her head.

'Why's that?'

'Well, a couple of days before new years eve Remus and Peter normally come over and we all spend new years together, just doing random stuff, I was wondering if you wanted to come along, with the rest of the girls as well obviously if they wanted to. If you can't make it don't worry about it, I just thought I'd invite you anyway' James said suddenly trailing off and looking at his feet as they walked back up to the castle.

'I'd love to' Lily said smiling and James lifted his head, beaming at her.

'Fantastic' he replied and they walked back to the common room, laughing at Louise constantly telling Sirius to 'get a life'.


	15. Happy To Be Home!

'So does that mean that you and James are going on one big long date for half of the holiday then?' Michelle asked Lily after she told them about James idea. They were sat in the girl's dormitories and it had been four days since James had asked her to spend New Years at his, and she thought it would be wise to finally tell the girls, as they were leaving Hogwarts for the Christmas holiday tomorrow.

'No of course it's not … he asked us all there, as friends! So stop all of this dating rubbish' Lily argued and Michelle put up her hands, indicating defeat.

'Fine, alright then Lily whatever you say … I can't make it anyway' Michelle said and Lily frowned.

'No actually I can't make it either' Alice said, and Lily turned her head towards her, still frowning.

'Erm … sorry Lily but I can't as well' Amy said quietly, and Lily shook her head.

'Alright then, why can't you?' Lily said, sighing.

'I'm going to Egypt with my family' Michelle said.

'I have to spend New Years around my grandparents house … it's a tradition' Alice followed and Lily turned her head, waiting for Amy's excuse.

'I'm going to visit my Dad in America' Amy said and Lily nodded, Amy's Dad had been doing research on wild magical animals in the states for a year now, and she hardly ever got to see him.

'Oh ok, they're good excuses I suppose' Lily sighed and then looked at Louise, who was sat on the floor packing her case.

'You're not bailing on me are you?' Lily asked and Louise shrugged.

'I don't know Lily … I don't know whether I want to spend my New Years bickering with Black' Louise whined and Lily moved from off her bed, and went to sit on the floor with Louise.

'Oh please Lou … you won't bicker with him, just try and get on. I need you there' Lily whined loudly, making Louise laugh.

'Oh you do sound awful when you whine' Louise laughed, packing her books into her case.

'Does that mean that I'm convincing you?' Lily asked, pouting.

'The whining I can understand, but don't pout' Louise laughed and Lily stopped pouting, and rolled her eyes.

'Fine … I'll be there' Louise said finally giving up, Lily grabbed Louise into a strong hug.

'Yes! Thank you! You'll have a great time … trust me!' Lily said happily and Louise nodded slowly, not convinced.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

On the Hogwarts Express the next day Lily was extremely excited about being able to see her family again.

'I've missed them loads' Lily said, digging her hands into a packet of every flavour beans.

'Yeah… but you'll see them in about two hour's time' Michelle said smiling.

'Woo! I've got Nicholas Flamel' Louise said, taking a wizard card out of her chocolate frog.

'Is this really all that we do when we're on this train … pig out' Amy said, holding a big packet of various sweets on her lap. The girls all laughed.

'Hell yeah!' Lily and Louise said at the same time. The girls laughed again as a knock on the door sounded in the compartment door. Lily turned her head and saw the Marauders standing at the door; Lily smiled and waved her hand to allow them to come in.

'Hello ladies … we were in our compartment but decided it's boring with just the four of us … so we've come to spend time with you lovely's' Sirius said, sitting down next to Lily.

'Don't you mean terrorize us?' Louise said glaring at Sirius as the other pranksters sat down around the compartment.

'Why on earth would you accuse me of that?' Sirius said acting offended. James caught Lily's eyes, and rolled his and pointed at Sirius and Louise. Lily laughed quietly and looked out of the window, the next thing she knew her eyes were closed.

'How rude ... we come in here to pay her a visit and she falls asleep on us' Sirius said, staring at Lily. James laughed a threw a chocolate frog at his friends head.

'Be nice' James said smiling, Sirius winked at his best friend and then continued to bicker with Louise.

**_'Oh this is going to be a long journey'_** James thought as he picked up an open packet of sugar droubles.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

'Lils … Lily … wake up, we're at the station in ten minutes' she heard a voice say in her ear, she opened her eyes slowly, put her hand to her head and then slowly brought herself up from wherever she was lying. She looked around the compartment. Remus, Peter and Amy were sat in the left far corner; Michelle was reading a book on the other side, opposite her were Sirius and Louise, back to back with frowns on their faces and sat next to her was James.

'Oh gosh I'm sorry I didn't mean to fall asleep on you' Lily said, looking back out of the window, embarrassed.

'Actually you didn't, you fell asleep leaning on the window, and when Sirius and Louise got up, arguing about who was going to ask the driver how long the journey was going to take, and you sort of fell, I guess your body was leaning against Sirius and I caught you before your body hit the floor. I'm surprised you slept through it really' James said with a smile, Lily turned back round to him, smiling back.

'Oh … well thank you' Lily said as she felt the train come to a halt.

'Well I guess this is it' Sirius said standing up. The rest of the group stood up and made their way out of the compartment. They stood on the platform waiting for their cases, and Lily was desperately looking around for her parents.

'Have you seen your mum and dad yet?' James asked and Lily shook her head.

'Don't worry they'll be around here somewhere, I haven't seen mine yet either' James said fetching his case, and Lily followed to get hers. After they all had their cases, everyone apart from Lily, James and Sirius had found their parents and had already said their goodbyes.

'Remember … I need you at James' at New Year; promise me you'll be there?' Lily asked Louise before she left.

'Yes … Yes I'll be there' Louise sighed and gave her friend one final hug before leaving.

'So where do you think your parents are?' Sirius asked James and Lily, who shook their heads.

'You don't think anything's … you know … happened do you?' Lily asked, suddenly worried. She stared at James and he noticed the fear in her eyes and put his arm around her.

'Don't be so silly' James said and suddenly he heard his voice being called behind him.

'James! Sirius… there you are! We've been looking for you boys everywhere!' James' mother said, rushing towards them with James' father. Lily smiled and looked around the station. Then she heard her name being called as well.

'Lily! Oh Lily there you are …' she heard and behind James' parents hers suddenly appeared.

'Where have you been?' Lily asked, giving her Mum a hug.

'Well we couldn't find you on the platform, and this lady and gentleman couldn't find their son's either … so we all went onto the train to see if you were still on there, but we couldn't find you, so we came back out here' Lily's dad said, giving his youngest daughter a hug. James stood behind Lily after her Dad had let her go.

'See I told you, nothing to be worried about … just parents being parents' James said and Lily smiled, Lily's dad looked at James with thin eyes, and when Lily noticed she coughed slightly.

'Mum, Dad, this is James Potter, and Sirius Black. You've heard me mention them before I'm sure. Guys this is my Mother, Rose and my Father, David' Lily said and James held his hand out to shake Mr Evans hand.

'Yes' Mr Evans said, smiling at James and shaking his hand back.

'Pleasure to meet you Sir' James said.

'Yeah' Sirius said, smiling at Lily's parents. Lily rolled her eyes and smiled.

'Yes Mum, Dad, this is Lily Evans, Lily my parents' James said and Lily turned herself around to James parents. He looked very much like his father, but had his mothers bone structure and eyes.

'Very nice to meet you' Lily smiled at James parents, who smiled back.

'So you're the famous Lily Evans we hear so much about?' James' mother said but before Lily could answer James cut in.

'Yes anyway, we must be going, lots to do with unpacking and everything. We'll see you at New Years then Lil?' James said moving in to hug Lily quickly. She hugged back and then moved away.

'Yeah' Lily smiled, giving Sirius a hug goodbye and wished James parents a save trip before all four of them disapparated into thin air.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

'So that was James Potter … the boy who you supposedly have hated since your first day, and you were hugging him goodbye?' Lily's mother said, smiling at her daughter.

'Yes well people can change' Lily smiled back.

'And what is this I hear about New Years?' Lily's dad asked, staring at Lily through his rear view mirror.

'Most of us are going around James' house to celebrate, its ok isn't it?' Lily asked, suddenly concerned, but her fathers face smiled back at her.

'Of course it is, as long as we've got you until then, his parents seemed like very nice, charming people' He replied, smiling at his daughter.

'So sweetie have you missed us?' her mother asked and Lily nodded, as they got out of the car at their house.

'Yes … where's Petunia?' Lily asked and she heard her father grunt loudly as he locked the car door and made his way into the house.

'Erm… round her new boyfriends, I must admit your father isn't to keen on him, thinks he's abit to … I don't know how to put it … confident' Rose said as she and her daughter walked into the house.

'Confident?' Lily asked confused.

'Well he rambles on about how he's going to own his own business, he's working in some screw driver factory, and one day hopes to own it, well I hate to say it Lils but his voice just annoys your father, for some reason they don't seem to click' Rose explained and Lily nodded.

'He seemed rather keen on James though I must say' Rose said amused and Lily sighed.

'Oh don't be so silly Mum, Dad only saw for him about a minute' Lily replied laughing.

'Ah well I know your Father, and mainly I can guess because he's letting you go over his house for New Year' Rose said, the smile not fading off her lips.

'Meaning?' Lily asked, pouring a drink into a cup before she sat on the kitchen unit.

'Well … all Petunia said was that she was going to her boyfriends house for dinner and your Father went crazy, you tell him that you're sleeping over a boys house for a week before school, and he doesn't bat an eyelid, that's how I know' Rose said smirking at her daughter. Lily just rolled her eyes and sipped her drink as her Mother walked out of the kitchen. Oh how she had missed home.


	16. Christmas Tidings

Lily woke up the next morning feeling content. She didn't realise how much she missed her family while she was at Hogwarts, maybe because she rarely seemed to have the time to miss anyone, because something was always going on. She sat up and turned on her television. After half an hour she sighed, switched off her television and made her way downstairs. Her Dad was sitting in the living room eating his breakfast; she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and made her own way into the kitchen. Her Mum and Petunia were arguing and Lily walked past them and sat on the kitchen unit.

'But Mum I promised him I would go and see him this afternoon' Petunia whined at her mother, who was standing at the cooker frying bacon for breakfast.

'Petunia, no means no, you promised me that you would help with the decorations and that is what you're going to do, you'll have to ring up Vernon and tell him you can't make it and have a prior engagement' Rose said, moving the bacon onto a plate. Petunia wailed and then David shouted from the living room.

'Petunia, Listen to your Mother or do I have to come in there' at these words Petunia stopped wailing and nodded.

'No Daddy … sorry' Petunia answer and Lily couldn't help but crack a smile. No matter how many times Petunia tried to act spoilt, her mum and dad always knew how to sort her out.

'So I see you're home then' Petunia said looking towards Lily after she heard her laugh.

'Yep I am' Lily smiled and Petunia rolled her eyes. Lily took her plate of bacon from her Mum and lent over to get a fork out of the draw.

'So how long are you home for this time' Petunia asked, glaring at Lily.

'Until the day before New Years eve, I'm off to a friend's house after that' Lily replied, eating her bacon and Petunia smiled.

'Oh you and grease boy have made up then I see… I knew it would only be a matter of time, you're both freaks together' Petunia wailed.

'Petunia, stop that sort of behaviour right now! That's a really nasty thing to say to your sister, apologise and then go to your room' Rose shouted, making Petunia apologise and then she ran out of the kitchen.

'Thanks Mum, but I can handle her you know' Lily smiled at her mum, and Rose shook her head.

'Don't be so silly, I'm not going to let her get away with calling you things like that. But on the subject of Severus, have you spoken to him at all?' Rose asked and Lily shook her head.

'You ask me this every time I come home, no is the answer, generally when people fall out they don't talk to each other Mum. We don't even acknowledge each other anymore, And now with me spending time with James and the rest of the lads I doubt we ever will again, and not just because of the fact we're too different, but more to the fact that James and Snape are complete enemies' Lily said and Rose nodded.

'Well I always thought he was a little odd' Rose said and Lily laughed, her Mum was always on her side in any argument.

'James is a nice boy anyway… I'd stick with him' Rose said, winking at her daughter.

'Mum, we're not going out how many times do I have to tell you?' Lily said, smiling at her Mum who looked at her with a knowing smile.

'I believe you sweetie' was all Rose said in return, and then turned around to wash up, and Lily rolled her eyes.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

'James, will you stop worrying, she's coming, in about two weeks … so just start panicking in a week and six days ok? It may make this holiday abit more bearable' Sirius said lying on his best friend's bed.

'Alright, alright, fine … I'll stop talking about her' James said looking out of the window. He loved his house, it was so big and full of old family secrets that he loved to find out. The best bit of it was that it was on the outskirts of London, in a small town, and he loved looking out of the windows and seeing regular muggle's getting up to their ordinary lives, like going out to buy milk.

'Good, now come on … what are we going to do?' Sirius asked and James shrugged his shoulders.

'We could go and play Quidditch?' James suggested but Sirius shook his head.

'Nah we get enough of that at Hogwarts' Sirius replied and James scoffed at him.

'You do you mean' James smiled and Sirius nodded, James sighed when he heard his Mum's voice ball in the room, called his and Sirius' name.

'Mum wants us downstairs, come on' James said and Sirius lifted himself up, and the both apparated downstairs, making James' mum shout.

'Boys! Why can't you both just walk down the stairs?' she said and James laughed.

'Why can't you walk up the stairs instead of using the megaphone system … it'll deafen me one day and I'll come after you' James said smiling at his Mum.

'It's ok Lizzy; you can all us whatever way you like' Sirius said smiling at James' Mum.

'Suck up' James whispered to Sirius, who jabbed him in the stomach.

'Ouch…' James shouted and Lizzy turned around.

'Boys, behave will you' she said pointing her wand at the washing up.

'Never' James smiled slyly at his mum.

'Why did you call us down anyway?' James asked and Lizzy turned around.

'I need you both to help me put up the decorations around the house, will you be able to do the first and second floor, and I'll do the ground floor, and spilt up please, it'll be done faster' Lizzy explained and the boys nodded their heads and made their way upstairs, the muggle way.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Lily was sat in the living room going through a box of old Christmas decorations.

'Mum, isn't this what I made when I was about 6?' Lily asked, picking up a cardboard star up from the box, it was coloured in with pencil crayons.

'Yes, you don't think I throw any of your things in the bin do you? I'm proud of everything you do' Rose explained and Lily smiled.

'Favouritism' Petunia sneered under her breath but Rose heard.

'Now don't be like that, I've kept everything you've done as well … you might as well go and see Vernon, because you're obviously not happy here' Rose said, hurt.

'No … its fine I'll stay' Petunia said in a low voice and started putting decorations on the tree. It took Lily, Rose and Petunia an hour and a half to finish decorating the living room and the tree. Lily stood back and admired it.

'You look happy' Petunia said, staring at her sister.

'I am … because I did it the muggle way, without magic' Lily said and Petunia rolled her eyes.

'Oh yes and that's an accomplishment, doing things the exact same way we do …' Petunia glared and Lily's smiled faded. No matter what Lily did Petunia would always see her as a freak.


	17. Sibling Rivalry

On Christmas Eve morning Lily was sending letters to all of her friends wishing them a good Christmas and attaching their presents. She decided to leave the Marauders gifts until she went to James' in a week's time, which is when she realised that she hadn't brought James a present. She sent off Amy's present last and then ran downstairs.

'Mum I have a problem … I haven't brought James a Christmas present… I can't show up at his house without a present for him when I've brought everyone else one' Lily said, sitting on the sofa with her mum, who was reading a magazine.

'Lily, its Christmas Eve, what's taken you so long?' Rose asked and Lily shrugged.

'I don't know, I just forgot I suppose, I've got to go out and get something, everywhere is going to be packed … and it's going to be muggle as well, more than likely he won't understand it' Lily said, disappointed in herself.

'Lily, I'm sure whatever you get him he'll appreciate it, we better go and get something then while the shops are quiet, it gets busy about midday so we better hurry' Rose said putting the magazine down and standing up.

'Cheers Mum, Where's Dad and Petunia?' Lily asked while Rose went to fetch her keys from the kitchen.

'Your Dad has gone to fetch my Christmas present and your sister is at that Vernon boys house, it's worrying how much time they spend together if I'm going to be honest…your Father and I only saw each other four days a week, and we're still happily married' Rose said, shaking her head and Lily smiled.

'I suppose times change Mum' Lily said smiling. They made their way to the shopping centre where two hours later she still hadn't found the perfect gift for James

'Mum there's nothing… what am I going to do?' Lily asked and her Mother rolled her eyes, putting down the item she had just shown Lily.

'Lily … he'd like whatever you brought him, trust me!' Rose said and Lily sighed heavily and shrugged her shoulders.

'Nothing seems special enough' Lily said, picking up random items and then putting them back. Rose eyed her daughter with a smile.

'And why would it have to be special?' Rose asked and Lily shrugged again.

'Because everything I buy for my FRIENDS is special …' Lily answered and Rose laughed.

'Whatever you say sweetie…' Rose answered and walked off towards the men's pyjamas.

'_**What would he like? I haven't spoken to him about his likes or dislikes … how on earth am I supposed to do this?' **_Lily thought to herself while wondering around the men's section in the store.

'I give up Mum … I'll see what shops are around near James' house and get something then …' Lily said and Rose nodded.

'So this was a useless trip then I see' Rose said smiling at her daughter as they walked back to the car.

'I'm sorry Mum. Wait! I've got an idea … I'm going to apparate to Diagon Alley and get something, sorry about making you come out on Christmas Eve for nothing' Lily said and Rose smiled slightly.

'No worries, I wanted to try and find your Father anyway, to see that he's not buying me an unattractive carpet looking cardigan' Rose explained and Lily laughed, hugging her Mum.

'I'll see you at home' Lily said and then apparated out of the car park.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

When Lily arrived she made her way to the Quidditch store straight away. She ended up buying James the new Quidditch book and a set of new robes to wear with his name printed on the back in Gold. She walked out of the shop, feeling happy that she finally found something she knew James would love, and hoped nobody else had thought of the idea. When she finally got home, she ran upstairs to wrap the presents.

'_**Why did I care so much about getting the perfect present for James … it wasn't that hard to pick presents for anyone else'**_ Lily thought as she finished wrapping them and put them in the corner of the room with the rest of the lads presents. Petunia entered her room and glared at Lily.

'Mum wants you downstairs for dinner' Petunia said and Lily lifted herself up off the floor and made her way over to the door.

'You're home finally then?' Lily said and Petunia scoffed at her.

'Coming from you, you leave for months on end to go to that freak school and come back thinking that you're perfect … doing all of those stupid spells and transporting yourself from one place to another' Petunia argued, raising her voice.

'I beg your pardon! How dare you say that? At least I don't act like a spoilt brat! I care about what Mum and Dad think and do; you just go off to your boyfriends without a second thought about how they feel about it…' Lily shouted but Petunia cut her off.

'What happens here has nothing to do with you anymore, you're to busy at your freak school' Petunia spat at her sister and Lily laughed.

'You mean the freak school you begged Dumbledore to let you into' Lily shouted back, the sisters were standing on the landing, each to angry to go down.

'I have no idea what you're talking about' Petunia said, turning her head round and Lily laughed again.

'Yeah … ok then … I just wish that you'd just leave me alone, let me be happy and accept who I am' Lily said, quieting herself down.

'And you reckon… that's never going to happen …' Petunia said and Rose and David were stood at the bottom of the stairs.

'GIRLS… Will you behave yourselves and stop arguing, come down here this instant, this isn't the way we wanted to spend Christmas' David shouted and Lily walked down the stairs, but Petunia refused to move.

'Petunia … now' David shouted and Petunia leaned over the banister to look at her family.

'No! it's always me who gets into trouble when she's around' She whined, pointing at Lily.

'That's because you start it… it's not my fault I'm a witch, I didn't choose to be, it was the luckiest thing thats ever happened to me, and if you were a real sister you'd support me' Lily shouted and Petunia laughed cruelly.

'Support a freak like you … you must be joking'

'PETUNIA … WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT TALKING TO YOUR SISTER IN THAT WAY?' Rose screamed and Petunia rolled her eyes.

'It's only because you're jealous Petunia … I'm sorry but you are. I would be if you were a witch and I wasn't, but even if I was jealous, I wouldn't stop caring about you' Lily shouted up the stairs and Petunia laughed again.

'Jealous? Of you! You wish … I hate this family sometimes. I'm going to Vernon's' Petunia said, storming down the stairs but her Father stopped her at the bottom.

'You're not going anywhere young lady, it's Christmas Eve and we're spending this time together as a family, you've been with _that _boy all day today' David said holding Petunia back.

'Fine … whatever' Petunia said, pushing her way past David and sitting at the table with a slam.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

That night Lily was sat in bed, reading a book. Rose walked in and sat on the end of Lily's bed.

'Mum, I'm sorry about earlier, I started it by saying to her that shes never at home anymore … I just get so angry with her sometimes, she acts like she doesn't care about you or Dad' Lily said, placing her book down by the side of her bed, and her mum smiled.

'Lily sweetheart, Petunia's behaviour has nothing to do with you, it's the way she's handled you being a witch, and only she can change the way she behaves. She has no right to call you names or make you feel different to the rest of us, you're our baby girl and we'll always love you, whether you can do magic or not … Petunia just doesn't see it that way, she sees it as you get all the attention, because when you finally come home for the holidays we love having you here' Rose explained and Lily nodded slowly. Rose lent up and kissed Lily on the head and stood up.

'Thanks Mum' Lily replied and lent down to lie on her pillow.

'No problems sweetie, I'll see you in the morning' Rose said closing Lily's door behind her and sighed loudly as she walked into her bedroom.


	18. Muggle Ways Are Always The Best?

Christmas morning Lily woke up slowly, smiled and ran into her parent's room feeling ten years old again.

'Mum, Dad, it's Christmas!' Lily shouted as she opened their bedroom door, and groans erupted from both of her parents.

'Lily sweetheart don't you think you're too old for Christmas now?' Rose breathed, refusing to open her eyes.

'No one is too old for Christmas, now come on!' Lily said and pulled the blankets off her parents. After receiving another large groan off them Lily ran out the room quickly and downstairs. Her presents were where they always were, on the small chair in the corner of the living room, it was her favourite chair and every year when she was a child she insisted that Santa had to put her presents there. She ran over to them smiling and sat down next to the chair. She shouted up to her parents again, who stomped down the stairs five minutes later.

'Petunia is refusing to wake up, she said she'll open her presents later' David sighed and sat down next to his pile of presents. Lily opened her presents one by one, she loved Christmas, it was her favourite time of the year, and not just because of the presents.

'Thank you!' Lily screamed at her parents as she opened present after present. Rose and David laughed at their youngest daughter.

'You haven't changed Lily, you'll always be the little five year old to me … screamed at every present you receive' David smiled as Lily screamed quietly when she opened a present off Louise. After Lily had finished she felt exhausted, she forgot what such hard work it was to be excited about something.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The day went far to fast for Lily's liking. Before she knew it, it was eight pm and the sun had set in the sky. She sat in the living room, reading a new book that Amy had brought her.

'It isn't fair … why does this day have to go so quickly?' Lily asked and Rose shrugged and smiled.

'Because you enjoy it so much, time flies when you're having fun remember Lily'. Lily nodded and snuggled underneath a blanket that she stole off her bed ten minutes before.

'Before you know it you'll be at James house' Rose winked at her daughter, and Lily rolled her eyes.

'You know I don't know anyone else's mother who acts like you' Lily replied and Rose shrugged her shoulders.

'That's because I'm one of a kind' Rose answered, smiling widely at her daughter. Lily sunk into her chair, and hoped that one day she would be as fun as her Mum when she had kids.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Rose was right about one thing, the week went extremely quickly for Lily. She could barely remember what Christmas day was like, and had barely seen Petunia since their argument on Christmas Eve, which wasn't a bad thing. As she said her goodbyes to her parents an owl flew down onto the kitchen table. Lily ran over to it and analysed the bird.

'That's James' owl … maybe something has happened and I can't go over, his parents work for the ministry' Lily said to her parents while she untied the note from the bird's leg. She read the note quickly and then breathed a sigh of relief.

'What it is sweetie?' Rose asked and Lily laughed and held up the piece of parchment so her parents could see it.

'His address … is it strange that I was about to leave for his house, and I didn't even know where he lived?' Lily asked, shocked and herself, but as she loved into her mothers knowing eyes she instantly regretted saying it, she knew Rose would tease her now.

'All that excitement I suppose' Rose said and Lily rolled her eyes.

'Ah Rose leave the girl alone, it's only a friend' David said and Lily nodded triumphal at David.

'Yes, thanks Dad, you see Mum, a friend' Lily said emphasising the word friend, Rose smiled and put her hands up, indicating that she either was giving in or wasn't saying a word … Lily couldn't decide which. She said goodbye to her parents once more and then apparated to the address that was wrote on the piece of parchment, that Lily left on the kitchen table. After she had disappeared her parents went into the kitchen and Rose picked up the address.

'He has nice hand writing too' Rose said smiling at her husband.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Lily was overwhelmed by the size of James' house. She knew that his parents were well off, but she didn't think she had ever seen a house so big, apart from Buckingham Palace … but that's allowed … its royalty. She walked up the long pathway, and noticed the garden around her. James' mum was obviously extremely house proud, not one hedge was uncut or weed could be seen. The pathway was surrounded by small daisies and wild flowers grew around the garden. There was a stone water fountain in the middle of the garden that's water was sparking gold. Lily walked up to the front door and knocked on it quietly, feeling ever so slightly over whelmed. She heard someone shout from inside the house and breathed a sigh of relief as the door opened to reveal Sirius.

'Hello Lilykins… how nice of you to show up' Sirius winked at his friend, she pulled him into a hug and he took her bag off her.

'It's great to see you, I've missed everyone so much, where's everyone else?' Lily asked and Sirius laughed.

'Upstairs … trying to decorate your room … without magic' Sirius said with a hint of fear in his voice.

'Oh you shouldn't have gone to that much trouble' Lily whined as the pair walked up the marble long staircase.

'Don't take it up with me, it's James' fault … I would have been happy with you sharing my room' Sirius said with a sly wink.

'I bet you would have' Lily giggled and lightly hit Sirius on the arm. Sirius led her up two staircases and then down a long hallway.

'This is my room' Sirius said pointing to a door as they walked past it. 'This is James' room' He said as he pointed to the opposite side of the hallway and then he stopped.

'And this is your room … Ta Dar!' Sirius said as he opened the door swiftly and inside Peter was clutching onto a broken lampshade, James was shouting at him for breaking it and Remus was busy painting the last of the wall.

'My goodness … you didn't have to do this' Lily said looking around the room. The walls were painted lavender, and a double four poster bed was in the middle of the room. On her night stand was a picture of James and Sirius and on her window sill a bunch of flowers.

'Hey Lil' James said, who had stopped arguing with Peter as soon as he noticed her arrival; he walked up to her and hugged her tightly, and then stuck his arms out.

'What do you think of your room?' James said smiling.

'I love it … but can you explain this' Lily said picking up the picture of James and Sirius.

'Well Lils, we thought that a picture of us could help you get to sleep … you know …' Sirius said winking again and Lily giggled.

'Yes … wonderful idea' Lily said putting the picture down and giving Remus and Peter a hug. She sat on her bed and Sirius placed her bag down by her wardrobe.

'Why do it all the muggle way though?' Lily asked and everyone looked at James.

'Wanted to make it look like we'd made an effort … that's all' James said and Lily smiled warmly at him, which he gladly returned.

'Any sign of Louise yet?' Lily asked and it was everyone's turn to stare at Sirius.

'Hey, I don't know why everyone is looking at me … she dropped the pudding everywhere … it wasn't my fault' Sirius said and Lily was suddenly confused.

'Louise arrived last night, and decided out of thanks to Lizzy for making the meal she would put together the dessert, but brains over here decided that he was going to play a prank on her, making the dessert go everywhere, she's been in her room ever since. We've all been in to see her, but she's livid with Sirius' Remus explained and Lily looked disappointed at Sirius.

'What! It wasn't my fault … ok maybe it was … but I didn't mean it to mean any harm, I've apologised, she's just being stubborn now' Sirius whined and Lily rolled her eyes.

'Where is her room?' Lily asked and James stepped forward.

'I'll take you, you three behave while I'm gone' James said smiling at his friends and walked out of the room with Lily and back down the hall.

'I'm glad you're here' James smiled and Lily nodded.

'Yeah so am I… your house is beautiful by the way, I've never seen anywhere like it' Lily said and James looked at her.

'Yeah it is, but to be honest it's too big for my liking, I'd prefer a small house, a cottage or something when I get my own place' James said and Lily nodded in agreement.

'Yeah I'm the same, I'd never feel fully myself being the owner of a massive house … it's just not me' Lily smiled.

'I have a Christmas present for you, but I'll give it to you later' James said as they reached Louise's door.

'Oh… same goes for you then' Lily smiled and James looked back up the hallway when he heard Sirius whoop loudly.

'Were their presents in that bag of yours by any chance?' James laughed and Lily put her head in her hands, nodding.

'Yeah I think they've found them, but don't worry, I'm patient … I'll wait till later' James said winking at Lily, who whispered thank you and then made her way into Louise's room. Louise was sat on her bed reading a book and Lily walked in and sat next to her.

'Hello stranger' Lily said and Louise lifted her head, and screamed at her best friends sudden appearance. She jumped to give Lily a hug, smiling widely.

'What's happened then? What happened last night?' Lily asked after the pair had caught up about their holidays so far.

'Oh it was just Black being a prat again as per usual' Louise grunted.

'The lads said that you're pretty hacked off … but you seen fine to me' Lily said slyly and Louise smiled.

'I'm fine … I've only been in here all day because I'm reading that witches of the 16th century that you brought me, oh and so Black can feel bad about what he did' Louise said giggling quietly. Lily laughed at her friends' sneakiness.

'You pair really are as bad as each other' Lily said shaking her head.

'Oh you mean like you and James?' Louise said, lifting up her eyebrow.

'That's different, I and James are friends now…' Lily said and Louise nodded slowly.

'Yes but only a month or so ago you were at each others throats … because you were both as stubborn as each other' Louise said and Lily rolled her eyes.

'I know what you're trying to do … and I'm going to twist it back round by the way. James and I are living proof that you and Sirius have some hope of being friends' Lily explained and Louise banged her fist on the bed lightly.

'Damn' Louise grunted and Lily laughed.

A/N: Hey … I don't normally do these little notes but I'm just apologising about the lack of updates in the past couple of weeks. I've started University now so I'm doing full days again, but I promise I will update all of the stories when I can!


End file.
